Following the 1895 split in rugby football, the two forms rugby league and rugby union differed in administration only. Soon the rules of rugby league were modified, resulting in two distinctly different forms of rugby, after 100 years, in 1995 rugby union joined rugby league and most other forms of football as an openly professional sport.[2]

Scotland First Rugby Team wearing brown[3] in 1871 for the 1st international, vs England in Edinburgh, 1871.

The First England Team, 1871, in the 1st international, vs Scotland in Edinburgh.

New South Wales rugby union team, ca. 1883

A form of rugby played in 1905. Art by S.T. Dadd.

The Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games, some of which involved the use of the feet, the Roman game harpastum is believed to have been adapted from a Greek team game known as "ἐπίσκυρος" (Episkyros)[4][5] or "φαινίνδα" (phaininda),[6] which is mentioned by a Greek playwright, Antiphanes (388–311 BC) and later referred to by the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215 AD). These games appear to have resembled rugby football.[7][8][9][10][11] The Roman politician Cicero (106–42 BC) describes the case of a man who was killed whilst having a shave when a ball was kicked into a barber's shop. Roman ball games already knew the air-filled ball, the follis.[12][13]Episkyros is recognised as an early form of football by FIFA.[14]

In 1871, English clubs met to form the Rugby Football Union (RFU); in 1892, after charges of professionalism (compensation of team members) were made against some clubs for paying players for missing work, the Northern Rugby Football Union, usually called the Northern Union (NU), was formed.[15] The existing rugby union authorities responded by issuing sanctions against the clubs, players, and officials involved in the new organization, after the schism, the separate clubs were named "rugby league" and "rugby union".[16]

Date

Event

1830

Running with the ball became common in 1830s at Rugby School and Rugby School football became popular throughout the UK in the 1850s, and 1860s.

First recognised international rugby match, played between England and Scotland.

1876

Matthew Bloxam’s letter is published in The Meteor. It claims William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby School, picked up the ball and invented rugby, although a Rugby Football Union inquiry in 1895 found no actual proof, it decided to perpetuate the myth.[citation needed]

1877

The number of players is reduced from 20 to 15 a side.

1880

English Rugby rules required for a tackled player, when the ball was "fairly held", to put the ball down immediately for scrummage.

Concerned at the growing dominance of the largely working-class northern clubs, the Rugby Football Union introduces strict amateur rules: no one was allowed to seek or receive payment or other material reward for taking part in the game.

Modern points scoring is uniformly accepted by the Home Nations for the 1890/91 season.

1892

Charges of professionalism are laid against rugby football clubs in Bradford and Leeds, after they compensated players for missing work. This was despite the fact that the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was allowing other players to be paid, such as the 1888 British Isles team that toured Australasia, and the account of Harry Hamill of his payments to represent New South Wales (NSW) against England in 1904.

1893

Yorkshire clubs propose allowing players to be paid six shillings ‘broken-time’ payments when they miss work due to matches. RFU votes down proposal. Widespread suspensions of northern clubs and players begin.

1895

The Schism in rugby football results in the formation of the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU). Many factors played a part in the split, including the success of working class northern teams, a decree by the RFU banning the playing of rugby at grounds where entrance fees were charged, threat of expulsion from the RFU if clubs cannot prove their amateurism, and the banning of "broken time payments" to players who had taken time off work to play rugby. Twenty-two clubs met at the George Hotel, Huddersfield and formed the "Northern Rugby Football Union". Within fifteen years of that first meeting in Huddersfield, more than 200 RFU clubs had left to join the Northern Union.

1897

To make the game more exciting, the Northern Union abolishes the line-out and reduces value of all goals to two points. Line outs were replaced with punting the ball back into play from the touch-line. Tries worth three points.

England play South Africa (known as the Springboks) in rugby union for the first time. James Peters is withdrawn from the England squad after the South Africans objected to playing against a black player.

1906

James Peters becomes the first black person to play rugby union for England, against Scotland.

1906

In the Northern Union the number of players is reduced from fifteen to thirteen a side, in order to allow more room for creative play. The early form of play-the-ball is introduced as the game’s way of restarting play after a tackle.

1907

A New Zealand professional rugby team tours Britain. Albert Henry Baskerville, a Post Office clerk in New Zealand, organises a touring side branded the ‘All Golds’ in Sydney due to the players receiving a share of any profits from the tour. They play under rugby union rules in Sydney, on their way to Britain, Australia’s greatest player, Dally Messenger, joins them on tour. They win the game’s first test series 2–1, but Baskerville dies of pneumonia on the way home at the age of 25.

1907

Rugby league spreads to Australia and New Zealand. The New South Wales Rugby Football League is founded at Bateman's Hotel in Sydney. The New South Wales Rugby League sets up an eight team competition after a row with the New South Wales Rugby Union over compensation for injured players, the first Premiership is won by South Sydney. Rugby league goes on to displace rugby union as the primary football code in New South Wales and Queensland.

Firs rugby league Challenge Cup Final is played at Wembley. Wigan defeat Dewsbury 13–2 in front of 41,500.

1930

Rugby union’s European Cup starts, outside the Five Nations. It is interrupted by WWII.

1930

Unprecedented fourth rugby league test match played between Britain and Australia at Rochdale after third test is drawn 0–0. Britain win the test 3–0 to take the Ashes.

1932

First rugby league match under floodlights.

1933

On New Year’s Eve, England and Australia play in Paris — the first game of rugby league in France. The French had been excluded from the rugby union Five Nations competition amid allegations of professionalism, so the country was receptive to the new game.

1934

Rugby league is established in France by Jean Galia, a former rugby union international and champion boxer. By 1939, the French league has 225 clubs.

1941

The French Vichy government bans rugby league, because of its links with the Allies and a desire to ban all professional sports. The code’s funds and property are all confiscated or passed to rugby union clubs. Rugby union is allowed to carry on unscathed and regains much of the ground it had lost to rugby league. To this day, the rugby league clubs' assets have never been returned to them.[citation needed]

1943

A Northern Command army rugby league side defeats a Northern Command rugby union side 18–11 at Headingley playing rugby union rules. The following year a Combined Services rugby league side beats a Combined Services rugby union side 15–10, these are the only league vs union matches played until 1996.

1944

With the fall of the Vichy Government, the French ban on rugby league is lifted.

1945

Brian Bevan makes his rugby league debut for Warrington. Over the next 16 seasons he scored 740 tries for the club in 620 games, his career total was 796, more than 200 ahead of his nearest rival.

The most famous rugby league tour of all,[citation needed] as the Lions sail to Australia on HMS Indomitable, stoking the boilers to keep fit. After a five-day train journey across Australia, Gus Risman’s team retain the Ashes, drawing one and winning two Tests.

1949

The French Rugby League is banned from using ‘rugby’ in its name. Changes its name to Jeu à Treize (Game of Thirteen).

Just a decade after being wound up, France win their first rugby league series in Australia. They repeat the feat by winning again in 1955.

1951

Rugby league’s Cec Thompson becomes the first black player to represent Great Britain in any sport.

1952

Rugby union’s European Cup restarts.

1954

102,569 spectators watch the 1953–54 rugby league Challenge Cup final at Bradford, setting a new record for attendance at a rugby football match of either code.

1954

First Rugby League World Cup, the first for either code of rugby, staged in France. Great Britain beat France 16–12 in final at Parc des Princes, Paris.

1956

Springboks' rugby union tour of New Zealand. South Africa suffer their first ever test series loss against New Zealand.

1957

Australia wins the Rugby League World Cup.

1958

Rugby league’s Cec Thompson becomes the first black manager of any sport in Britain.

1958

Great Britain defeat Australia 25–18 in the second rugby league test match with only eight fit players on the pitch. Alan Prescott plays for 77 minutes with a broken arm.

1960

Great Britain wins the Rugby League World Cup. The tournament is decided on a league system.

1964

Substitutes allowed in rugby league for the first time, but only for players injured before half-time.

1966

The Rugby League International Board introduces a rule that a team in possession is allowed three play-the-balls and on the fourth tackle a scrum is to be formed. The Southern hemisphere adopts the rule the following year, but it becomes six-tackle rugby in 1972, and in 1983 the scrum was replaced by a handover.

1967

Professional rugby league adopts Sunday as its main match day, in a bid to reverse declining attendances.

1968

Substitutes allowed in rugby union for the first time, but only for injured players.

1969

Springbok rugby union tour to Britain and Ireland. The tour is marked by protests against apartheid; South Africa would not tour the Home Nations again until after the end of apartheid.

1969

Rugby league finally gains recognition as a sport in British universities and colleges.

1970

Great Britain wins rugby league’s Ashes in Australia, after winning the final two test matches.

Wales and England field separate teams in the Rugby League World Cup, played over several months in both hemispheres. Australia takes the trophy by finishing one point ahead of England in the final league table.

1976

New Zealand rugby union tour of South Africa. Twenty-eight nations boycott the 1976 Summer Olympics in protest against the International Olympic Committee's refusal to ban New Zealand from the games for defying the IOC's ban on sporting contact with South Africa.

1978

New Zealand rugby union tour of Britain and Ireland – New Zealand completes Grand Slam of victories over England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales for the first time.

1980

Australia establishes rugby league’s State of Origin series, where Queensland and New South Wales born players face each other. From 1982 onwards, it is played as a three match series and is recognised as the fiercest, toughest rugby in the world.[citation needed]

Australian rugby league tourists win all tour games for first time and become known as 'The Invincibles'.

1983

A rugby league try is increased to four points. The character of the game changes further with the introduction of the turn-over possession on the sixth tackle, drastically reducing the number of scrums, the Sin Bin is introduced for offences that do not merit a sending off.

1983

The Rugby League international transfer ban is lifted.

1984

Australia rugby union tour of Britain and Ireland — Australia completes the Grand Slam of victories over England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales for the first time.

The ban on French Rugby League using ‘rugby’ in its name is lifted. It changes its name back to Rugby à Treize.

1991

Australia defeat England 12–6 at Twickenham, London, in the second Rugby Union World Cup, held in the British Isles and France.

1992

The Springboks are readmitted to international rugby union.

1992

73,631 at Wembley see Australia defeat Great Britain 10–6 in the Rugby League World Cup final.

1994

David Hinchliffe MP introduces the Sports (Discrimination) Bill, to ban discrimination of amateur players of rugby league and other sports.

1994

The three British Armed Services recognises rugby league as a sport. Rugby league would be on the same footing as other sports in the Services.

1995

The International Rugby Board declares Rugby Union an 'open' professional game. It removes all restrictions on payments or benefits to those connected with the game.

1995

South Africa defeats New Zealand 15–12 (after extra time) at Ellis Park, Johannesburg in the third Rugby Union World Cup, held in South Africa.

1995

Rugby League centenary is celebrated by reviving the World Cup in Britain. Australia beat England 16–8 in the final at Wembley. Fiji, Tonga, South Africa and Western Samoa join the established nations in a successful tournament, whilst Ireland, Scotland, the USA, Russia, the Cook Islands, Moldova and Morocco all compete in an Emerging Nations Tournament.

1995

The Heineken Cup is formed as a competition for 12 Rugby Union European clubs.

Bath Rugby and Wigan, England's top union and league sides respectively, made history by playing against each other at both codes of rugby. The first match was at Maine Road, Manchester under league rules, Wigan beating Bath 82–6; then two weeks later the return match was held at Twickenham under union rules, Bath 44 beating Wigan 19.

1997

In Australia, the Super League war came to an end, with News International and the Australian Rugby League agreeing to merge their competitions to create the National Rugby League.

New Zealand defeat Australia 34–17 at Twickenham Stadium, England, in the eighth rugby union World Cup, held in the United Kingdom. In doing so, New Zealand becomes the first team to win consecutive titles.

2016

Inaugural season of PRO Rugby in the United States. The competition folded after just one season.

2017

Toronto Wolfpack become the first fully professional rugby team in Canada, joining the British/French professional rugby league system in the third tier League 1.

In Canada and the United States, rugby union evolved into gridiron football, during the late 1800s (and even the early 1900s), the two forms of the game were very similar (to the point where the United States was able to win the gold medal for rugby union at the 1924 Summer Olympics), but numerous rule changes have differentiated the gridiron-based game from its rugby counterpart. Among unique features of the North American game are the separation of play into downs instead of releasing the ball immediately upon tackling, the requirement that the team with the ball set into a set formation for at least one second before resuming play after a tackle (and the allowance of up to 40 seconds to do so), the allowance for one forward pass from behind the site of the last tackle on each down, the evolution of hard plastic equipment (particularly the football helmet and shoulder pads), a smaller and pointier ball that is favorable to being passed but makes drop kicks impractical, a generally smaller and narrower field measured in customary units instead of metric (in some variants of the American game a field can be as short as 50 yards between end zones), and a distinctive field (shaped like a gridiron, from which the code's nickname is derived) with lines marked in five-yard intervals.

Distinctive features common to both rugby codes include the oval ball and throwing the ball forward is not allowed, so that players can gain ground only by running with the ball or by kicking it, as the sport of rugby league moved further away from its union counterpart, rule changes were implemented with the aim of making a faster-paced and more try-oriented game.

The main differences between the two games, besides league having teams of 13 players and union of 15, involve the tackle and its aftermath:

Union players contest possession following the tackle: depending on the situation, either a ruck or a maul can occur. League players may not contest possession after making a tackle: play is continued with a play-the-ball.

In league, if the team in possession fails to score before a set of six tackles, it surrenders possession. Union has no six-tackle rule; a team can keep the ball for an unlimited number of tackles before scoring as long as it maintains possession and does not commit an offence.

Set pieces of the union code include the "scrum", in which packs of opposing players push against each other for possession, and the "line-out", in which parallel lines of players from each team, arranged perpendicular to the touch-line, attempt to catch the ball thrown from touch. A rule has been added to line-outs which allows the jumper to be pulled down once a players's feet are on the ground.

In the league code, the scrum still exists, but with greatly reduced importance as it involves fewer players and is rarely contested. Set pieces are generally started from the play-the-ball situation. Many of the rugby league positions have similar names and requirements to rugby union positions, but there are no flankers in rugby league.

In England, rugby union is widely regarded as an "establishment" sport, played mostly by members of the upper and middle classes. For example, many pupils at public schools and grammar schools play rugby union, although the game (which had a long history of being played at state schools until the 1980s) is becoming increasingly popular in comprehensive schools.[24] Despite this stereotype, the game, particularly in the West Country is popular amongst all classes; in contrast, rugby league has traditionally been seen as a working class pursuit. Another exception to rugby union's upper class stereotype is in Wales, where it has been traditionally associated with small village teams made up of coal miners and other industrial workers who played on their days off;[25] in Ireland, both rugby union and rugby league are unifying forces across the national and sectarian divide, with the Ireland international teams representing both political entities.

In Australia, support for both codes is concentrated in New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, the same perceived class barrier as exists between the two games in England also occurs in these states, fostered by rugby union's prominence and support at private schools.[26]

In the United Kingdom, rugby union fans sometimes used the term "rugger" as an alternative name for the sport, (see Oxford '-er'), although this archaic expression has not had currency since the 1950s or earlier.[28] New Zealanders refer to rugby union simply as either "rugby" or "union", or even simply "football", and to rugby league as "rugby league" or "league";[29] in the U.S., people who play rugby are sometimes called "ruggers", a term little used elsewhere except facetiously.

In France, rugby is widely played and has a strong tradition in the Basque, Occitan and Catalan areas along the border regions between Spain and France. The game is very popular in South Africa, having been introduced by English-speaking settlers in the 19th century. British colonists also brought the game with them to Australia and New Zealand, where the game is widely played, it has spread thence to much of Polynesia, having particularly strong followings in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. Rugby union continues to grow in the Americas and parts of Asia as well.

A rugby ball, originally called a quanco, is a diamond shape ball used for easier passing. Richard Lindon and Bernardo Solano started making balls for Rugby school out of hand stitched, four-panel, leather casings and pigs’ bladders, the rugby ball's distinctive shape is supposedly due to the pig’s bladder, although early balls were more plumb-shape than oval. The balls varied in size in the beginning depending upon how large the pig’s bladder was.

In rugby union, World Rugby regulates the size and shape of the ball under Law 2 (also known as Law E.R.B); an official rugby union ball is oval and made of four panels, has a length in-line of 280–300 millimetres, a circumference (end to end) of 740–770 millimetres, and a circumference (in width) of 580–620 millimetres. It is made of leather or suitable synthetic material, and may be treated to make it water resistant and easier to grip, the rugby ball may not weigh more than 460 grams or less than 410 and has an air pressure of 65.71–68.75 kilopascals, or 0.67–0.70 kilograms per square centimetre, or 9.5–10.0 lbs per square inch.[30] Spare balls are allowed under the condition that players or teams do not seek an advantage by changing the ball. Smaller sized balls may also be used in games between younger players. Much larger versions of traditional balls are also available for purchase, but these are mainly for their novelty attraction.

The Rugby World Cup, which was first held in New Zealand and Australia in 1987, occurs every four years, it is an international tournament organized by World Rugby. The event is played in the union format and features the top 20 teams from around the world, the current world champions are New Zealand, who won the 2015 Rugby World Cup, which was played in England.

The Rugby League World Cup was first held in France in 1954, and as of 2013 occurs on a 4-year cycle, it is an international tournament that is organized by the Rugby League International Federation. The event is played in the league format and features the top 14 teams from around the world, the current world champions are Australia, who won the World Cup in 2013, played in England, Wales, France and Ireland.

Rugby shirts were formerly made of cotton but are now made of a cotton and polyester mix. This material has the advantage of not absorbing as much water or mud as cotton alone.[citation needed] Owing to the more aggressive nature of the game, rugby clothing in general is designed to be much more robust and hardwearing than that worn for soccer.

The rugby jerseys are slightly different depending on the type of rugby game played, the shirts worn by rugby league players commonly have a large "V" around the neck. The players in rugby union wear jerseys with a more traditional design, sometimes completely white (Cahors Rugby in France), the number of the player and his or her surname are placed on the upper back of the jersey (often name above number, with the number being significantly larger and more central), and the logo of the team on the upper left chest.[citation needed]

With the popularity of rugby over the years, many betting establishments have made it possible for viewers of the game to place wagers on games, the various types of wagers that can be placed on games vary, however the main types of bets that can be placed are as follows:

Fixed-odds betting

Futures/Outright Bets

Prop Bets / Specials

Over/Under Bets

Like most team sports, both forms of rugby are vulnerable to match fixing, particularly bets involving easily manipulated outcomes, such as conceding penalties and first point scorer. A recent example is a deliberate infringement by Ryan Tandy in order for the first points scored to be a penalty goal in a 2010 NRL match; the attempt backfired when instead of taking a shot at goal, a try was scored.

^ἐπίσκυρος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library

^The New Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007 Edition: "In ancient Greece a game with elements of football, episkuros, or harpaston, was played, and it had migrated to Rome as harpastum by the 2nd century BC".

^φαινίνδα, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library

^"PNG vow to upset World Cup odds". Rugby League. Federación Peruana de Frontón. 15 October 2008. Retrieved 3 July 2009. But it would still be one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history if Papua New Guinea – the only country to have rugby league as its national sport – were to qualify for the last four.

1.
Rugby league
–
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field. One of the two codes of football, it originated in England in 1895 as a split from the Rugby Football Union over the issue of payments to players. Its rules gradually changed with the aim of producing a faster, in rugby league, points are scored by carrying the ball and touching it to the ground beyond the opposing teams goal line, this is called a try, and is the primary method of scoring. The opposing team attempts to stop the side scoring points by tackling the player carrying the ball. In addition to tries, points can be scored by kicking goals, after each try, the scoring team gains a free kick to try at goal with a conversion for further points. Kicks at goal may also be awarded for penalties, and field goals can be attempted at any time. Rugby league is a sport in Northern England, the states of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, New Zealand. The European Super League and Australasian National Rugby League are the club competitions. Rugby league is played internationally, predominantly by European, Australasian and Pacific Island countries, the first Rugby League World Cup was held in France in 1954, the current holders are Australia. The first of these, the Northern Rugby Football Union, was established in 1895 as a faction of Englands Rugby Football Union. Similar breakaway factions split from RFU-affiliated unions in Australia and New Zealand in 1907 and 1908, renaming themselves rugby football leagues, in 1922, the Northern Union also changed its name to the Rugby Football League and thus over time the sport itself became known as rugby league football. In 1895, a schism in Rugby football resulted in the formation of the Northern Rugby Football Union, within fifteen years of that first meeting in Huddersfield, more than 200 RFU clubs had left to join the rugby revolution. In 1897, the line-out was abolished and in 1898 professionalism introduced, in 1906, the Northern Union changed its rules, reducing teams from 15 to 13 a side and replacing the ruck formed after every tackle with the play the ball. A similar schism to that which occurred in England took place in Sydney, There, on 8 August 1907 the New South Wales Rugby Football League was founded at Batemans Hotel in George Street. Rugby league then went on to rugby union as the primary football code in New South Wales. On 5 May 1954 over 100,000 spectators watched the 1953–54 Challenge Cup Final at Odsal Stadium, Bradford, England, also in 1954 the Rugby League World Cup, the first for either code of rugby, was formed at the instigation of the French. In 1966, the International Board introduced a rule that a team in possession was allowed three play-the-balls and on the tackle a scrum was to be formed. This was increased to six tackles in 1972 and in 1983 the scrum was replaced by a handover,1967 saw the first professional Sunday matches of rugby league played

2.
Paul Gallen
–
He has also been the vice captain of the Australian national team and has played his whole NRL career to date with the Sharks, with whom he won the 2016 NRL Premiership. In 2014, Gallen admitted to using the banned performing enhancing peptide drugs and it was found that he unknowingly and unwittingly took the substances given to him by people he trusted at the club. Gallen later signed with the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Gallen made his NRL debut for the Cronulla Sharks against the Parramatta Eels in round 15 at Toyota Park on 3 June. Cronulla lost the match 36 to 6 and he made one more appearance that season in the final round, where the Sharks were victorious over the Brisbane Broncos 24–16. In round 14, the Sharks beat the Canberra Raiders by 36 points to 26, during the match, Gallen scored his first ever try at first-grade level. In total, Gallen made 21 appearances in his season at first-grade level for the Cronulla Sharks. Gallen was sent off in round 11 against the Newcastle Knights by referee Paul Simpkins after a shot on Sean Rudder. Gallen made a total of 17 first-grade appearances for the club in 2003, scoring five tries in the process. In the opening round of the year, against the Wests Tigers, the judiciary decided that he had instigated and tried to go on with a fight involving Wests Tigers prop John Skandalis. He also sustained an injury during the match which ruled him out until round six of the competition. Gallen was the player in round one to contest his charge. In round 11 against the Manly Sea Eagles, Gallen scored an impressive two tries in his sides 30 points to 28 victory, in June it was announced that Gallen had extended his contract for another three seasons. In the 2004 season, Gallen made a total of 19 appearances for the club, in round 24, the Sharks scored their biggest ever victory, scoring a 68 points to 6 win over the Manly Sea Eagles, with Gallen scoring a try. Cronulla finished in place and therefore qualified to be involved in the finals series. They were drawn against the second placed side, which happened to be local rivals St. George-Illawarra, in the match Gallen managed to score a try for Cronulla, however it wasnt enough to save the Sharks from losing the match 28 points to 22. Gallen was presented the Cronulla Sharks chairmans Award in 2005 by the clubs President Barry Pierce after his impressive season where he led the NRL in both hit ups and off loads, at the 2005 Dally M Awards, he was also nominated for the position of Best Lock. However, he lost out to Manly lock Ben Kennedy, in the 2005 NRL season, Gallen played a total of 25 games in first-grade for the Sharks and in the process scored six tries. Gallen ran 3,920 metres with the ball in 2005, before the season started it was discovered that Gallen was suffering from a bulging disc in his lower back

3.
2008 Rugby League World Cup
–
The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup since its inauguration in 1954, and the first since the 2000 tournament. The tournament was held in Australia from 26 October, culminating in the final between Australia and New Zealand on 22 November,2008 was the fourth time that the World Cup was held in Australia, the first being in 1957. The tournament was won by New Zealand, who defeated Australia 34–20 in the final in one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport, the tournament featured the best ten teams around the globe which were split into three groups. A total of eighteen matches took place in different venues across four Australian states. The tournament ended a year of celebrations commemorating the centenary of the game in the hemisphere and was part of the Festival of World Cups. The Rugby League International Federation officially announced this tournament on 6 May 2006, with details on scheduling. The final took place at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, the tournament proved a commercial success, delivering a profit of A$5 million and re-establishing the credibility of the competition. The draw, after being confirmed by the RLIF on 19 April 2007, the first group was made up of four teams, Australia, England, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Whilst the other two groups involved three teams each, the semi finals were made up of the first three teams in the first group and the winner of a playoff between the winners of the second and third groups. The draw was put into doubt after the Papua New Guinea team claimed that it was unfair to them, marcus Bai, former Papua New Guinean winger and captain, said, They have to change it and if they dont, we wont come. We will ring up the island nations and teams elsewhere who dont qualify. They have shown no respect for our country or for our efforts to promote the game up there, fortunately for the tournament, this separate island competition did not eventuate. Papua New Guinea still remained upset with the draw, seeing it as a huge challenge, the draw was finalised on 4 October 2007. Teams received 2 points for a win, and 1-point for a draw and this meant that, unlike in the Australasian National Rugby League, there was no golden point rule enforced. In group stages, if two teams had the number of points then positions were determined on points difference, the number of points scored minus the number of points conceded. After group matches were completed, a match featuring the second placed teams in Group B, similarly the third placed teams in Group B and Group C played off for 9th place. It was believed that these results were to be taken account in the 2009 RLIF World Rankings. Two European rounds and Pacific, Atlantic and Repêchage rounds were scheduled, Tonga and Fiji became the first two nations to qualify after Tonga defeated Samoa 18–10 in Leeds on 22 October, forcing Samoa to enter the repêchage

4.
Rugby union
–
Rugby union, known in some parts of the world simply as rugby, is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15 players using a ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped goalposts on each try line. Historically an amateur sport, in 1995 restrictions on payments to players were removed, World Rugby, originally the International Rugby Football Board and from 1998 to 2014 the International Rugby Board, has been the governing body for rugby union since 1886. Rugby union spread from the Home Nations of Great Britain and Ireland, early exponents of the sport included Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France. Countries that have adopted rugby union as their de facto national sport include Fiji, Georgia, Madagascar, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Rugby union is played in over 100 countries across six continents, there are 101 full members and 18 associate members of World Rugby. The Rugby World Cup, first held in 1987, takes place four years with the winner of the tournament receiving the Webb Ellis Cup. The Six Nations Championship in Europe and The Rugby Championship in the Southern Hemisphere are major annual competitions. The origin of football is reputed to be an incident during a game of English school football at Rugby School in 1823. Although the evidence for the story is doubtful, it was immortalised at the school with a plaque unveiled in 1895, despite the doubtful evidence, the Rugby World Cup trophy is named after Webb Ellis. Rugby football stems from the form of game played at Rugby School, Old Rugbeian Albert Pell, a student at Cambridge, is credited with having formed the first football team. During this early period different schools used different rules, with pupils from Rugby. Other important events include the Blackheath Clubs decision to leave the Football Association in 1863, despite the sports full name of rugby union, it is known simply as rugby throughout most of the world. The first rugby football international was played on 27 March 1871 between Scotland and England, by 1881 both Ireland and Wales had representative teams, and in 1883 the first international competition, the Home Nations Championship had begun. 1883 is also the year of the first rugby tournament, the Melrose Sevens. During the early history of union, a time before commercial air travel. The first two notable tours both took place in 1888—the British Isles team touring New Zealand and Australia, followed by the New Zealand team touring Europe, All three teams brought new styles of play, fitness levels and tactics, and were far more successful than critics had expected. After Morgan began singing, the crowd joined in, the first time a national anthem was sung at the start of a sporting event, in 1905 France played England in its first international match

5.
Team sport
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A team sport includes any sport which involves two or more players working together towards a shared objective. A team sport is an activity in individuals are organized into opposing teams which compete to win. Examples are basketball, volleyball, water polo, handball, lacrosse, cricket, baseball, Team sports are practiced between opposing teams, where the players interact directly and simultaneously between them to achieve an objective. The objective generally involves teammates facilitating the movement of a ball or similar object in accordance with a set of rules, in order to score points. However, other types of team sports do not involve teammates facilitating the movement of a ball or similar item in accordance with a set of rules, for example, swimming, rowing, sailing, dragon boat racing, and track and field among others are also team sports. In other types of team sports there may not be a team or point scoring, for example. Instead of points scored against a team, the relative difficulty of the climb or walk is the measure of the achievement. In some sports where participants are entered by a team, they do not only compete against members of other teams, for example, motorsport, particularly Formula One. This process is known as team orders and although previously accepted was banned in Formula One between 2002 and 2010, after a controversy involving team orders at the 2010 German Grand Prix however, the regulation was removed as of the 2011 season. Organized sports in athletics, started in Greece in 796 BC, is recorded up to 393 BC and these games, which are Olympic games, were a form to test the skills of warriors, consisted of running, jumping or leaping, wrestling, and javelin throw. In the Bayankhongor Province of Mongolia cave paintings dating back to Neolithic age of 7000 BC depict a wrestling match surrounded by crowds, cave paintings of the Prehistoric times in Japan show a sport similar to sumo wrestling. In Wadi Sura, near Gilf Kebir in Libya, Neolithic in the cave of swimmers shows evidence of swimming in a rock painting, the name athletes is derived from Aethelius, the King of Elis in Olympia, Greece. Before the start of the gods were invoked by offering of mostly fruits. The winner of the race was crowned with a wreath of olive or laurel, in subsequent years monetary attractions were introduced as prize money. However, the practice of offering celery sticks is still in vogue in the 100 m sprint in the Olympics, the present pattern of Olympic Games is akin to the practice followed in the ancient days. The 200 m sprint is known in Greek as short foot race, the 400 m race is equivalent to two stades and called Diaulos in Greek. With the advent of computer gaming and the Internet, Esports which is in vogue for quite a few years was recorded in October 1972 as a video game. A Space war tournament was organized by Stanford University which was titled Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics with an offering of one-year subscription to Rolling Stone

6.
Rugby School
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Rugby School is a day and boarding co-educational independent school in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain and its re-establishment by Thomas Arnold during his time as Headmaster, from 1828 to 1841, was seen as the forerunner of the Victorian Public School. It is one of the original seven English Public Schools defined by the Public Schools Act 1868, total enrolment of day pupils from forms 4 to 12 numbers around 800. Rugby School was the birthplace of Rugby football, in 1845, three Rugby School pupils produced the first written rules of the Rugby style of game. Rugby School was founded in 1567 as a provision in the will of Lawrence Sheriff, since Lawrence Sheriff lived in Rugby and the neighbouring Brownsover, the school was intended to be a free grammar school for the boys of those towns. Up to 1667, the school remained in comparative obscurity, a final decision was handed down in 1667, confirming the findings of a commission in favour of the trust, and henceforth the school maintained a steady growth. Floreat Rugbeia is the school song. Pupils beginning Rugby in the F Block study various subjects and this is continued through to D block. The school then provides standard A-levels in 29 subjects, students at this stage have the choice of taking 3 or four subjects and are also offered the opportunity to take an extended project. The Governing Body provides financial benefits with school fees to families unable to afford them, parents of pupils who are given a Scholarship are capable of obtaining a 10% fee deduction, although more than one scholarship can be awarded to one student. Rugby School claim they aim to give more than education with their new tagline being The Whole Person. The school has three magazines, The Meteor, The Boomer and Quod, the core of the school was completed in 1815 and is built around the Old Quad, with its Georgian architecture. Especially notable rooms are the Upper Bench, the Old Hall of School House, Thomas Hughes once carved his name onto the hands of the school clock, situated on a tower above the Old Quad. By the twentieth century Rugby expanded and new buildings were inspired by this Edwardian Era. The Temple Speech Room, named after former headmaster and Archbishop of Canterbury Frederick Temple and now used for assemblies, speech days, concerts, musicals –. Oak-panelled walls boast the portraits of alumni, including Neville Chamberlain holding his piece of paper. Between the wars, the Memorial Chapel, the Music Schools and she wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, saying, They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed, rugbys most famous headmaster was Thomas Arnold, appointed in 1828, he executed many reforms to the school curriculum and administration

7.
Rugby, Warwickshire
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Rugby is a market town in Warwickshire, England, close to the River Avon. The town has a population of 70,628 making it the second largest town in the county, the enclosing Borough of Rugby has a population of 100,500. Rugby is 13 miles east of Coventry, on the edge of Warwickshire. The town is credited with being the birthplace of rugby football, Early Iron age settlement existed in the Rugby area, and a few miles outside what is now Rugby, existed a Roman settlement known as Tripontium. Rugby was originally a small Anglo-Saxon farming settlement, and was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Rocheberie, Rugby obtained a charter to hold a market in 1255, and soon developed into a small country market town. Rugby School was founded in 1567 with money left in the will of Lawrence Sheriff, a locally born grocer, Rugby School was originally intended as a school for local boys, but over time became a mostly fee-paying private school. The Lawrence Sheriff School was eventually founded in the late 19th century to carry on Sheriffs original intentions, Rugby remained a sleepy country market town until the 19th century and the coming of the railways. In 1838 the London and Birmingham Railway was constructed past it, Rugby became an important railway junction, and the proliferation of rail yards and workshops attracted workers. Rugbys population grew from just 2,500 in 1835, to over 10,000 by the 1880s, in the 1890s and 1900s heavy engineering industries began to set up in the town, and Rugby rapidly grew into a major industrial centre. Rugby expanded rapidly in the decades of the 20th century as workers moved in. By the 1940s, the population of Rugby had grown to over 40,000, in the postwar years, Rugby became well served by the motorway network, with the M1 and M6 merging close to the town. Rugby is most famous for the invention of rugby football, which is played throughout the world, the invention of the game is credited to William Webb Ellis whilst breaking the existing rules of a football match played in 1823 at Rugby School. Rugby School is one of Englands oldest and most prestigious public schools, a substantial part of the 2004 dramatisation of the novel, starring Stephen Fry, was filmed on location at Rugby School. Hughes later set up a colony in America for the sons of the English gentry. The town of Rugby, Tennessee still exists, Rugby is a birthplace of the jet engine. Much of his work was carried out at nearby Lutterworth, holography was invented in Rugby by the Hungarian inventor Dennis Gabor in 1947. In the 19th century, Rugby became famous for its once important railway junction which was the setting for Charles Dickenss story Mugby Junction, Rugby also includes the areas of New Bilton, Overslade and Hillside. The spread of Rugby has nearly reached the villages of Clifton-upon-Dunsmore, Cawston, Dunchurch, the town centre is mostly Victorian and early 20th century, however a few much older buildings survive, along with some more modern developments

8.
Huddersfield
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Huddersfield is a large market town in West Yorkshire, England. It is the 11th largest town in the United Kingdom, with a population of 162,949 at the 2011 census, halfway between Leeds and Manchester, it lies 190 miles north of London, and 10.3 miles south of Bradford. Huddersfield is near the confluence of the River Colne and the River Holme, within the historic county boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is the largest urban area in the metropolitan borough of Kirklees and the administrative centre of the borough. The town is known for its role in the Industrial Revolution, and for being the birthplaces of rugby league, Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, and the film star James Mason. Huddersfield is home to rugby league team Huddersfield Giants, founded in 1895, who play in the European Super League, and Championship football team Huddersfield Town F. C. founded in 1908. The town is home to the University of Huddersfield and the sixth form colleges Greenhead College, Kirklees College, Huddersfield railway station is a Grade I listed building described by John Betjeman as the most splendid station façade in England, second only to St Pancras, London. The station in St Georges Square was renovated at a cost of £4 million, there has been a settlement in the area for over 4,000 years. The remains of a Roman fort were unearthed in the mid 18th century at Slack near Outlane, Castle Hill, a major landmark, was the site of an Iron Age hill fort. Huddersfield was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Oderesfelt, Huddersfield has been a market town since Anglo-Saxon times. The market cross is on Market Place, the manor of Huddersfield was owned by the de Lacy family until 1322, at which it reverted to royal ownership. In 1599, William Ramsden bought the manor, and the Ramsden family continued to own the manor, Huddersfield was a centre of civil unrest during the Industrial Revolution. Luddites began destroying mills and machinery in response, one of the most notorious attacks was on Cartwright — a Huddersfield mill-owner, the government campaign that crushed the movement was provoked by a murder that took place in Huddersfield. William Horsfall, a mill-owner and a prosecutor of Luddites, was killed in 1812. Although the movement faded out, Parliament began to increase welfare provision for those out of work, Two Prime Ministers have spent part of their childhood in Huddersfield, Harold Wilson and Herbert Asquith. Wilson is commemorated by a statue in front of the railway station, Kirklees Council was the first in the UK to have a Green Party councillor, Nicholas Harvey who was instrumental in protesting against the intended closure of the Settle and Carlisle Railway line. The town has substantial Conservative Party, Liberal Democrats and UKIP presences, centre-right and rightist groups are also active. Huddersfield was incorporated as a borough in the ancient West Riding of Yorkshire in 1868. The borough comprised the parishes of Almondbury, Dalton, Huddersfield, Lindley-cum-Quarmby, when the West Riding County Council was formed in 1889, Huddersfield became a county borough, exempt from county council control

9.
West Yorkshire
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West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in England. It is an inland and in relative terms upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in moors of the Pennines and has a population of 2.2 million, West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. West Yorkshire consists of five boroughs and shares borders with the counties of Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, North Yorkshire. In the heart of the county is Leeds Bradford International Airport, West Yorkshire County Council was abolished in 1986 so its five districts became effectively unitary authorities. However, the county, which covers an area of 2,029 square kilometres, continues to exist in law. West Yorkshire includes the West Yorkshire Urban Area, which is the most built-up, West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council inherited the use of West Riding County Hall at Wakefield, opened in 1898, from the West Riding County Council in 1974. Since 1987 it has been the headquarters of Wakefield City Council, the county initially had a two-tier structure of local government with a strategic-level county council and five districts providing most services. In 1986, throughout England the metropolitan county councils were abolished, the functions of the county council were devolved to the boroughs, joint-boards covering fire, police and public transport, and to other special joint arrangements. Organisations such as the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive continue to operate on this basis, although the county council was abolished, West Yorkshire continues to form a metropolitan and ceremonial county with a Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire and a High Sheriff. Wakefields Parish Church was raised to cathedral status in 1888 and after the elevation of Wakefield to diocese, Wakefield Council immediately sought city status and this was granted in July 1888. However the industrial revolution, which changed West and South Yorkshire significantly, led to the growth of Leeds and Bradford, Leeds was granted city status in 1893 and Bradford in 1897. The name of Leeds Town Hall reflects the fact that at its opening in 1858 Leeds was not yet a city, the county borders, going anticlockwise from the west, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. It lies almost entirely on rocks of carboniferous age which form the southern Pennine fringes in the west, in the extreme east of the metropolitan county there are younger deposits of magnesian limestone. The Bradford and Calderdale areas are dominated by the scenery of the slopes of the Pennines, dropping from upland in the west down to the east. There is a conjunction of large scale industry, urban areas. The dense network of roads, canals and railways and urban development, the carboniferous rocks of the Yorkshire coalfield further east have produced a rolling landscape with hills, escarpments and broad valleys. In this landscape there is evidence of both current and former industrial activity. There are numerous derelict or converted mine buildings and recently landscaped former spoil heaps, the scenery is a mixture of built up areas, industrial land with some dereliction, and farmed open country

10.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands

11.
McGill University
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McGill University is a public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was established in 1821 by royal charter, issued by King George IV of Great Britain, the University bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Scotland whose bequest in 1813 formed the universitys precursor, McGill College. Its academic units are organized into 11 main Faculties and Schools, McGill offers degrees and diplomas in over 300 fields of study, with the highest average admission requirements of any Canadian university. Most students are enrolled in the five largest faculties, namely Arts, Science, Medicine, Engineering, tuition fees vary significantly between in-province, out-of-province, and international students, as well as between faculties. Scholarships are generous, yet highly competitive and relatively difficult to attain, throughout its long history, McGill alumni were instrumental in inventing or initially organizing football, basketball, and ice hockey. In 1816 the RIAL was authorized to operate two new Royal Grammar Schools, in Quebec City and in Montreal and this was an important first step in the creation of nondenominational schools. When James McGill died in 1813 his bequest was administered by the RIAL, the original two Royal Grammar Schools closed in 1846 and by the mid-19th century the RIAL lost control of the other 82 grammar schools it had administered. Its sole remaining purpose was to administer the McGill bequest on behalf of the private college, since the revised Royal Charter of 1852, The Trustees of the RIAL comprise the Board of Governors of McGill University. James McGill, born in Glasgow, Scotland on 6 October 1744, was a merchant in Quebec. Between 1811 and 1813, he drew up a will leaving his Burnside estate, a 19-hectare tract of rural land and 10,000 pounds to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning. As a condition of the bequest, the land and funds had to be used for the establishment of a University or College, for the purposes of Education and the Advancement of Learning in the said Province. On March 31,1821, after protracted battles with the Desrivières family. The Charter provided that the College should be deemed and taken as a University, the Faculty of Medicine granted its first degree, a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, in 1833, this was also the first medical degree to be awarded in Canada. The Faculty of Medicine remained the only functioning faculty until 1843 when the Faculty of Arts commenced teaching in the newly constructed Arts Building. The university also historically has strong linkage with The Canadian Grenadier Guards and this title is marked upon the stone that stands before the Arts building, from where the Guards step off annually to commemorate Remembrance Day. The Faculty of Law was founded in 1848 which is also the oldest of its kind in the nation,48 years later, the school of architecture at McGill University was founded. Sir John William Dawson, McGills principal from 1855 to 1893, is credited with transforming the school into a modern university. He recruited the aid of Montreals wealthiest citizens, many of whom donated property and their names adorn many of the campuss prominent buildings

12.
Harvard University
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Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, james Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College, Harvards $34.5 billion financial endowment is the largest of any academic institution. Harvard is a large, highly residential research university, the nominal cost of attendance is high, but the Universitys large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. Harvards alumni include eight U. S. presidents, several heads of state,62 living billionaires,359 Rhodes Scholars. To date, some 130 Nobel laureates,18 Fields Medalists, Harvard was formed in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638, it obtained British North Americas first known printing press, in 1639 it was named Harvard College after deceased clergyman John Harvard an alumnus of the University of Cambridge who had left the school £779 and his scholars library of some 400 volumes. The charter creating the Harvard Corporation was granted in 1650 and it offered a classic curriculum on the English university model‍—‌many leaders in the colony had attended the University of Cambridge‍—‌but conformed to the tenets of Puritanism. It was never affiliated with any denomination, but many of its earliest graduates went on to become clergymen in Congregational. The leading Boston divine Increase Mather served as president from 1685 to 1701, in 1708, John Leverett became the first president who was not also a clergyman, which marked a turning of the college toward intellectual independence from Puritanism. When the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, in 1846, the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on the campus at Harvard College. Agassizs approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans participation in the Divine Nature, agassizs perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that a person can grasp the divine plan in all phenomena. When it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on an archetype for his evidence. Charles W. Eliot, president 1869–1909, eliminated the position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction. While Eliot was the most crucial figure in the secularization of American higher education, he was motivated not by a desire to secularize education, during the 20th century, Harvards international reputation grew as a burgeoning endowment and prominent professors expanded the universitys scope. Rapid enrollment growth continued as new schools were begun and the undergraduate College expanded. Radcliffe College, established in 1879 as sister school of Harvard College, Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. In the early 20th century, the student body was predominately old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, by the 1970s it was much more diversified

13.
New Zealand
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New Zealand /njuːˈziːlənd/ is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, the countrys varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealands capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland, sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that later were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, in 1840, representatives of Britain and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire, today, the majority of New Zealands population of 4.7 million is of European descent, the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealands culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, New Zealand is a developed country and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, education, economic freedom and quality of life. Since the 1980s, New Zealand has transformed from an agrarian, Queen Elizabeth II is the countrys head of state and is represented by a governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes, the Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealands territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and called it Staten Landt, in 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand, Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the country before the arrival of Europeans. Māori had several names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North, Middle and South, in 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised and this set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu

14.
Football
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Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. Unqualified, the football is understood to refer to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears. Sports commonly called football in certain places include, association football, gridiron football, Australian rules football, rugby football and these different variations of football are known as football codes. Various forms of football can be identified in history, often as popular peasant games, contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools during the nineteenth century. The expanse of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire, in 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions. During the twentieth century, several of the kinds of football grew to become some of the most popular team sports in the world. They tend to use throwing and running as the ways of moving the ball. Body tackling is a skill, and games typically involve short passages of play of 5–90 seconds. Association football, Australian rules football and Gaelic football tend to use kicking to move the ball around the pitch, body tackles are less central to the game, and players are freer to move around the field. Common rules among the sports include, Two teams of usually between 11 and 18 players, some variations that have fewer players are also popular, a clearly defined area in which to play the game. Scoring goals or points by moving the ball to an opposing teams end of the field and either into a goal area, goals or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts. The goal or line being defended by the opposing team, players being required to move the ball—depending on the code—by kicking, carrying, or hand-passing the ball. Players using only their body to move the ball, in all codes, common skills include passing, tackling, evasion of tackles, catching and kicking. In most codes, there are rules restricting the movement of players offside, there are conflicting explanations of the origin of the word football. It is widely assumed that the word refers to the action of the foot kicking a ball. There is an explanation, which is that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe. There is no evidence for either explanation. The Ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have played ball games

15.
Public school (United Kingdom)
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A public school in England and Wales is an older, student selective and expensive fee-paying independent secondary school which caters primarily for children aged between 11 or 13 and 18. The term public should not be misunderstood to mean that these are public sector schools, traditionally, public schools were all-male boarding schools, although most now allow day pupils, and many have become either partially or fully co-educational. The origins of schools in the UK were primarily religious until 1640 and it was intended that by-products of this would be the publication of universal books and the setting up of schools for boys and girls. Henceforth each of these schools was to be managed by a board of governors, Public schools have had a strong association with the ruling classes. Historically they educated the sons of the English upper and upper-middle classes, the sons of officers and senior administrators of the British Empire were educated in England while their parents were on overseas postings. In 2010, over half of Cabinet Ministers had been educated at public schools, in 2014, annual fees at Canford School and Eton College were more than £33,000 for boarders. The name dates back to the time when schools founded for local children went public and it is also used to describe the some 230 girls senior schools belonging to the Girls Schools Association. Until the late medieval period most schools were controlled by the church and had specific entrance criteria, others were restricted to the sons of members of guilds, trades or livery companies. The need for professional trades in an increasingly secularised society required schools for the sons of the gentry that were independent from ecclesiastical authority, from the 16th century onward, boys boarding schools were founded or endowed for public use. Traditionally, most of public schools were all boys and full boarding. Separate preparatory schools for younger boys developed from the 1830s, with entry to the schools becoming limited to boys of at least 12 or 13 years old. The first of these was Windlesham House School, established with support from Thomas Arnold, many of the schools, including Rugby School, Harrow School and the Perse School fell into decline during the 18th century and nearly closed in the early 19th century. Protests in the local newspaper forced governors of the Perse School to keep it open, a Royal Commission, the Clarendon Commission, investigated nine of the more established schools, including seven boarding schools and two day schools. St Pauls School and the Merchant Taylors School claimed successfully that their constitutions made them private schools, in 1887 the Divisional Court and the Court of Appeal determined that the City of London School was a public school. In the first year only 12 headmasters attended, but in the following year 34 did, the Headmasters Conference has since grown steadily to over 200 schools. The Public Schools Yearbook was published for the first time in 1889, listing 30 schools, mostly boarding schools except for St Pauls School, some academically successful grammar schools were added in later editions. The 1902 edition included all schools whose principals qualified for membership of the Headmasters Conference, the Fleming Report defined a public school as a member of the Governing Bodies Association or the Headmasters Conference. Based on the recommendations of this report, the Education Act 1944 offered a new status to endowed grammar schools receiving a grant from central government

16.
Association football
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Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies making it the worlds most popular sport, the game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by getting the ball into the opposing goal, players are not allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms while it is in play, unless they are goalkeepers. Other players mainly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, the team that scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is level at the end of the game, the Laws of the Game were originally codified in England by The Football Association in 1863. Association football is governed internationally by the International Federation of Association Football, the first written reference to the inflated ball used in the game was in the mid-14th century, Þe heued fro þe body went, Als it were a foteballe. The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the word soccer was split off in 1863, according to Partha Mazumdar, the term soccer originated in England, first appearing in the 1880s as an Oxford -er abbreviation of the word association. Within the English-speaking world, association football is now usually called football in the United Kingdom and mainly soccer in Canada and the United States. People in Australia, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand use either or both terms, although national associations in Australia and New Zealand now primarily use football for the formal name. According to FIFA, the Chinese competitive game cuju is the earliest form of football for which there is scientific evidence, cuju players could use any part of the body apart from hands and the intent was kicking a ball through an opening into a net. It was remarkably similar to football, though similarities to rugby occurred. During the Han Dynasty, cuju games were standardised and rules were established, phaininda and episkyros were Greek ball games. An image of an episkyros player depicted in low relief on a vase at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens appears on the UEFA European Championship Cup, athenaeus, writing in 228 AD, referenced the Roman ball game harpastum. Phaininda, episkyros and harpastum were played involving hands and violence and they all appear to have resembled rugby football, wrestling and volleyball more than what is recognizable as modern football. As with pre-codified mob football, the antecedent of all football codes. Non-competitive games included kemari in Japan, chuk-guk in Korea and woggabaliri in Australia, Association football in itself does not have a classical history. Notwithstanding any similarities to other games played around the world FIFA have recognised that no historical connection exists with any game played in antiquity outside Europe. The modern rules of football are based on the mid-19th century efforts to standardise the widely varying forms of football played in the public schools of England

17.
Gridiron football
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Gridiron football, or North American football, is a form of football primarily played in the United States and Canada. The predominant forms of football are American football and Canadian football. The grid system was abandoned in favor of the system of lines and hash marks used today. Gridiron football developed in the late 19th century out of the games now known as rugby football. Walter Camp is credited with creating many of the rules that differentiate gridiron football from its older counterparts, because the two sets of lines had the same spacing and were perpendicular, they divided the field into squares, resembling a checkerboard or gridiron pattern. The word gridiron, in use since the 14th century, refers to a grid for cooking food over a fire. As described in Outdoor Sports and Games, by Claude H. Miller, at each end are goal posts set 18 feet 6 inches apart, with a crossbar 10 feet above the ground. The field is marked off in chalk lines similar to a tennis court, the centre of the field where the play starts is 55 yards from either end. The lines on a football field make an effect and have given to the field the name of gridiron. As a result, the name of the field, gridiron, was applied to the game itself, the ball would be snapped in the grid in which it was downed on the previous play. The grid system was abandoned in favor of the system of lines and hash marks used today. Especially outside of the U. S. and Canada, the gridiron and gridiron football are often used to distinguish the North American sport from other codes of football. Gridiron is the word for the sport in Australia and New Zealand. In the United States and Canada, the game is known unambiguously as football, association football is known in these countries as soccer and rugby football, seldom encountered in the U. S. is known as rugby or, especially in Canada, English rugby. American football is the most common and widely known of the football codes. It is played with players to a side, four downs. The premier professional league in the United States, the National Football League, has its own distinct code, colleges in the United States generally play under the code defined in NCAA Football Rules and Interpretations. Youth games generally follow NFHS code with modifications, adult semi-pro, alternative and minor professional, amateur, touch, flag, etc. may follow any one of these codes or use their own rules

18.
American football
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The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team, if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the teams end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponents goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins, American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of association football and rugby football. The first game of American football was played on November 6,1869, during the latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the Rugby Union code, which allowed carrying the ball. American football as a whole is the most popular sport in the United States, Professional football and college football are the most popular forms of the game, with the other major levels being high school and youth football. As of 2012, nearly 1.1 million high school athletes and 70,000 college athletes play the sport in the United States annually, almost all of them men, in the United States, American football is referred to as football. The term football was established in the rulebook for the 1876 college football season. The terms gridiron or American football are favored in English-speaking countries where other codes of football are popular, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, American football evolved from the sports of association football and rugby football. What is considered to be the first American football game was played on November 6,1869 between Rutgers and Princeton, two college teams, the game was played between two teams of 25 players each and used a round ball that could not be picked up or carried. It could, however, be kicked or batted with the feet, hands, head or sides, Rutgers won the game 6 goals to 4. Collegiate play continued for years in which matches were played using the rules of the host school. Representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Rutgers met on October 19,1873 to create a set of rules for all schools to adhere to. Teams were set at 20 players each, and fields of 400 by 250 feet were specified, Harvard abstained from the conference, as they favored a rugby-style game that allowed running with the ball. An 1875 Harvard-Yale game played under rugby-style rules was observed by two impressed Princeton athletes and these players introduced the sport to Princeton, a feat the Professional Football Researchers Association compared to selling refrigerators to Eskimos. Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Columbia then agreed to play using a form of rugby union rules with a modified scoring system. These schools formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, although Yale did not join until 1879, the introduction of the snap resulted in unexpected consequences. Prior to the snap, the strategy had been to punt if a scrum resulted in bad field position, however, a group of Princeton players realized that, as the snap was uncontested, they now could hold the ball indefinitely to prevent their opponent from scoring. In 1881, both teams in a game between Yale-Princeton used this strategy to maintain their undefeated records, each team held the ball, gaining no ground, for an entire half, resulting in a 0-0 tie

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Canadian football
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In Canada, the term football may refer to Canadian football and American football collectively, or to either sport specifically, depending on context. The two sports have shared origins and are related but have significant differences. Rugby football in Canada originated in the early 1860s, and over time, active teams such as the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats have similar longevity. The CFL is the most popular and only major professional Canadian football league and its championship game, the Grey Cup, is one of Canadas largest sporting events, attracting a broad television audience, though it has been shrinking in recent years. In 2009, about 40% of Canadas population watched part of the game, in 2014, it was closer to 33%, great achievements in Canadian football are enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame located in Hamilton, Ontario. Other organizations across Canada perform senior league Canadian football during the summer, the first documented football match was a practice game played on November 9,1861, at University College, University of Toronto. One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was Sir William Mulock, a football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. The first written account of a game played was on October 15,1862 and it was between the First Battalion Grenadier Guards and the Second Battalion Scots Fusilier Guards resulting in a win by the Grenadier Guards 3 goals,2 rouges to nothing. In 1864, at Trinity College, Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, Frederick A. Bethune, the game gradually gained a following, with the Hamilton Football Club formed on November 3,1869. Montreal formed a team April 8,1872, Toronto was formed on October 4,1873, and this rugby-football soon became popular at Montreals McGill University. McGill challenged Harvard University to a game, in 1874 using a game of English rugby devised by the University of McGill. Later both the Ontario and Quebec Rugby Football Union were formed, and then the Interprovincial and Western Interprovincial Football Union, the CRFU reorganized into an umbrella organization forming the Canadian Rugby Union in 1891. The original forerunners to the current Canadian Football League, was established in 1956 when the IRFU and WIFU formed an umbrella organization, and then in 1958 the CFC left The CRFU to become the CFL. The Burnside rules closely resembling American football that were incorporated in 1903 by The ORFU, was an effort to distinguish it from a more rugby-oriented game, the rules were an attempt to standardize the rules throughout the country. The CIRFU, QRFU and CRU refused to adopt the new rules at first, the primary differences between the Canadian and American games stem from rule changes that the American side of the border adopted but the Canadian side did not. The Canadian field width was one rule that was not based on American rules, as the Canadian game was played in wider fields, initially an amateur competition, it eventually became dominated by professional teams in the 1940s and early 1950s. The Ontario Rugby Football Union, the last amateur organization to compete for the trophy, the move ushered in the modern era of Canadian professional football. Canadian football has mostly been confined to Canada, with the United States being the other country to have hosted high-level Canadian football games

20.
Scrum (rugby union)
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In rugby union a scrum is a means of restarting play after a minor infringement. It involves up to eight players each team, known as the pack or forward pack. At this point the ball is fed into the gap between the two packs and they both compete for the ball to win possession. Teams can be penalised for causing the scrum to collapse. A scrum is most commonly awarded when the ball is knocked forward, or passed forward, because of the physical nature of scrums, injuries can occur, especially in the front row. To prepare for a scrum, each teams eight forwards bind together in three rows — the front row, second row and back row, the front row is composed of the two props and the hooker. To the left is the prop with the hooker in the middle. The tighthead prop, number three, earns that name as his head and shoulders sits between the hooker and the prop of the opposing side, meaning he sits in a tighter scrum position. The loosehead prop, by contrast, has one open to the outside of the scrum. The three bind together tightly and there is no gap between the hooker and either prop. According to the laws of the game, When a player binds on a team-mate that player must use the arm from hand to shoulder to grasp the team-mate’s body at or below the level of the armpit. Failing to bind properly results in a penalty, and the team being awarded a free kick. The two second row forwards bind together and directly behind the front row with each putting their heads between the props and the hooker and they are more commonly referred to as locks as they lock the scrum. Lastly the back row is made up of the two flankers and the number eight, the flankers bind on each side of the scrum — next to a lock and behind a prop. Generally the number seven flanker is referred to as the openside flanker, openside and blindside refer to the wide and narrow side of the pitch respectively, as scrums usually occur closer to one of the touchlines than the other. The openside flankers job is to get to the ruck or maul as quickly as possible. The number 8 binds behind the two locks, with his/her head between them, to form a scrum the two forward packs approach to within an arms length of each other. The referee gives the command crouch and the front rows then crouch so that their backs are parallel to the ground and their head

21.
Crusaders (rugby union)
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The Crusaders are a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Christchurch that competes in the Super Rugby competition. They are the most successful team in Super Rugby history with seven titles, the franchise represents the Buller, Canterbury, Mid-Canterbury, South Canterbury, Tasman and West Coast provincial Rugby Unions. Their main home ground is AMI Stadium, formerly known as Jade Stadium and before that, formed in 1996 to represent the upper South Island of New Zealand in the Super 12, the Crusaders struggled in their first season and finished last. Their performance improved in 1997 and the team finished sixth, the team went on to win all three titles from 1998 to 2000 despite each final being played away from home. They again won the competition in 2002 after going through the season unbeaten, in the following two seasons, they again reached the final, although they were beaten on both occasions. 2005 was the last season of the Super 12 before its expansion, after finishing top of the table in that season, the Crusaders went on to host the final in which they defeated the Waratahs. As a result of winning their fifth Super 12 title, the Crusaders were given the trophy to keep, in 2006, the Crusaders hosted the Hurricanes in the inaugural Super 14 final and won 19–12. In 2008 the Crusaders hosted the final at AMI Stadium against the Waratahs, ironically the Crusaders also hold the record for the least points scored in a game when they were defeated by the Highlanders 6–0 in 2009. They have also scored the most points and most tries in one season, individual players also hold records, Andrew Mehrtens for most points in a Super 12 season, and Rico Gear for most tries in a season. They also have three International Rugby Board Players of the Year, Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, and, the original Crusaders team of 1996 was captained by All Blacks prop Richard Loe and coached by Vance Stewart. The Crusaders struggled in the season and finished bottom of the table with only two wins. Their eight losses included a 49–18 loss to the Blues and a 52–16 loss to the Queensland Reds, and the First ever tour was a pre-visit to South Africa prior start of Super 12. The following season saw a change in captain and coach, with Todd Blackadder succeeding Loe as captain, with five wins, the team finished the round-robin stage in sixth place. The improvement was particularly illustrated by the Crusaders 29–28 loss to the champions, the Blues. During this loss, Leon MacDonald was taken out with a charge by Robin Brooke. While the Crusaders attempted to get MacDonald back on the field, in their last game of 1997, the Crusaders beat the Queensland Reds 48–3 at Lancaster Park, now known as AMI Stadium. The Crusaders won their first title in 1998, despite starting the season with three losses in their first four games. They finished the round-robin by winning their last seven games, culminating in a win over the Coastal Sharks that gave them second place in the round-robin phase of the competition

22.
Brumbies
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The Brumbies are an Australian professional rugby union football team competing in the Super Rugby. The team is based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory and named for the horses which inhabit the capitals hinterland. The team represents the ACT and southern New South Wales regions, the Brumbies were formed in 1996 to provide a third Australian franchise for the newly formed Super 12 competition. It was predicted that the Brumbies, made up of so-called reject – players not wanted by the two teams – would perform poorly. Since then, they have enjoyed more success than all the other Australian teams combined, reaching six finals, the Brumbies play in navy blue, white and gold kits. The team plays at GIO Stadium in Canberra and is coached by former Wallabies fly-half Stephen Larkham. Rugby union football has a history in the ACT. The British Isles opened their 1899 tour of Australia with a match in Goulburn, however, it was not until 1938 that the ACT Rugby Union was finally established. Four clubs made up the first local competition, University, Easts, RMC, also in 1938, a representative ACT side faced off against the All Blacks, losing 5 to 56. The first international victory for an ACT representative side was in 1973, in 1978 an ACT side defeated Wales, who were Five Nations champions at the time. ACT had trailed at half time,6 to 16, but came back, the ACT representative side became known as the Kookaburras in 1989. ACT became Australias third provincial team in the new competition, known officially as the ACT Brumbies, in the inaugural Super 12 season, under coach Rod Macqueen, the Brumbies finished fifth on the table after the regular season, narrowly missing out on a finals position. The following season was more successful as the Brumbies entered the 1997 Super 12 Final. Eddie Jones took over as coach in 1998, but the Brumbies fell to tenth place on the 1998 season ladder. However, the season saw a big improvement, as they finished fifth for the second time in their Super rugby history. In 2000, the Brumbies made it to the 2000 Super 12 Final for the second time and they were however beaten by the Crusaders, losing 19 to 20. In 2001 they backed up their performance in 2000 to again enter the final. The Brumbies won the match, and in doing so, became the first team outside of New Zealand to be crowned Super 12 champions and that year the British Lions also came to Australia, and played a match against the Brumbies

23.
Comparison of rugby league and rugby union
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A comparison of rugby league and rugby union is possible because of the games similarities and shared origins. Initially, following the 1895 split in rugby football, rugby league, soon, however, the rules of rugby league were modified, resulting in two distinctly different forms of rugby. After 100 years, in 1995 rugby union joined rugby league, Rugby union was originally referred to as rugby football. During the early development of rugby football different schools used different rules, in 1871, English clubs met to form the Rugby Football Union. Rugby football spread to Australia and New Zealand, with games being played in the early to mid nineteenth century, in 1892, charges of professionalism were laid against Yorkshire clubs after they compensated players for missing work. A proposal to pay players up to six shillings when they missed work because of match commitments was voted down by the RFU. The rugby union authorities issued sanctions against clubs, players and officials involved in the new organisation, after the schism the separate codes were named rugby union for the RFU code and rugby league for the NU code. In 1906, All Black George William Smith joined with Albert Henry Baskerville to form a team of rugby players. George Smith cabled a friend in Sydney and three matches were arranged between a NSW rugby team before continuing onto the UK. This game was played under the rugby union laws and it was not until the team, nicknamed the All Golds, meanwhile, in Sydney a meeting was organised to look at forming a professional rugby competition in Australia. The meeting resolved that a New South Wales Rugby Football League should be formed, the first season of the NSWRFL competition was played in 1908, and has continued to be played every year since. In France rugby league split from rugby union in the 1930s, in 1948 the French instigated the formation of the International Rugby League Board as the world governing body for rugby league. France, New Zealand, Britain and Australia were the founding countries, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa joined the IRFB in 1948, France in 1978 and Argentina, Canada, Italy and Japan in 1991. On 26 August 1995 the IRFB, now known as the International Rugby Board, declared rugby union an open game and thus removed all restrictions on payments or benefits to those connected with the game. According to The New York Times at the time, Thirteen-man rugby league has shown itself to be a faster, more open game of better athletes than the other code. Rugby union is trying to negotiate its own escape from amateurism, with some admitting that the game is too slow. In the United Kingdom, rugby union or rugby league fans rarely refer to their sport as football as in most cases this would refer to association football. Across the United Kingdom, rugby union is referred to simply as rugby but in the North of England, the word rugby could refer to either sport

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History of rugby union
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The history of rugby union follows from various football games played long before the 19th century, but it was not until the middle of that century that the rules were formulated and codified. The code was known simply as rugby football. For most of its history, rugby was an amateur football code. Although rugby football was codified at Rugby School, many rugby playing countries had pre-existing football games not dissimilar to rugby, forms of traditional football similar to rugby have been played throughout Europe and beyond. Many of these involved handling of the ball, and scrummaging formations, the first detailed description of what was almost certainly football in England was given by William FitzStephen in about 1174–1183. He described the activities of London youths during the festival of Shrove Tuesday. The students of school have their own ball, the workers from each city craft are also carrying their balls. Numerous attempts were made to ban football games, particularly the most rowdy and this was especially the case in England, and in other parts of Europe, during the Middle Ages and early modern period. Between 1324 and 1667, in England alone, football was banned by more than 30 royal and local laws, the need to repeatedly proclaim such laws demonstrated the difficulty in enforcing bans on popular games. In 1531, Sir Thomas Elyot wrote that English Footeballe is nothinge but beastlie furie, Football games that included ball carrying continued to be played over the century, right up to the time of William Webb Elliss alleged invention. According to a writing in 1823, Each party has two goals, ten or fifteen yards apart. The parties, ten or fifteen on a side, stand in line, an indifferent spectator throws up a ball the size of a cricket ball midway between the confronted players and makes his escape. The rush is to catch the falling ball and he who first can catch or seize it speeds home, making his way through his opponents and aided by his own sidesmen. At a loss and gain of a snotch a recommencement takes place, the rules had always been determined by the pupils instead of the masters and they were frequently modified with each new intake. Rule changes, such as the legality of carrying or running with the ball, were often agreed shortly before the commencement of a game. The story first appeared in 1876, some four years after the death of Webb Ellis, Bloxam was not a contemporary of Webb Ellis and vaguely quoted an unnamed person as informing him of the incident that had supposedly happened 53 years earlier. The story has been dismissed as unlikely since an investigation by the Old Rugbeian Society in 1895. However, the cup for the Rugby World Cup is named the Webb Ellis trophy in his honour, and a plaque at the school commemorates the achievement

25.
History of rugby league
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Similar schisms occurred later in Australia and New Zealand in 1907. Gradually the rugby played in these breakaway competitions evolved into a separate sport that took its name from the professional leagues that administered it. Rugby league in England went on to set attendance and player payment records, the game also developed a significant place in the culture of France, New Zealand and several other Pacific Island nations, such as Papua New Guinea, where it has become the national sport. Although many forms of football had been played across the world, in 1871, English clubs playing the version of football played at Rugby School which involved much more handling of the ball than in association football, met to form the Rugby Football Union. Many new rugby clubs were formed, and it was in the Northern English counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire that the game really took hold, here rugby was largely a working class game, whilst the south eastern clubs were largely middle class. Rugby spread to Australasia, especially the cities of Sydney, Brisbane, Christchurch, here too there was a clear divide between the working and more affluent upper class players. England teams of the era were dominated by Lancashire and Yorkshire players, however these players were forbidden to earn any of the spoils of this newly-rich game. Predominantly working class found it difficult to play to their full potential because in many cases their time to play. A further limit on the ability of working class teams was that working class players had to be careful how hard they played. If injured, they had to pay their own bills and possibly take time off work. In 1892, charges of professionalism were laid against rugby football clubs in Bradford and Leeds, by implication they were arguing that this affected the RFUs decisions on the issue of broken time payments to the detriment of northern clubs, who made up the majority of English rugby clubs. Payment for broken time was a proposal put forward by Yorkshire clubs that would allow players to receive up to six shillings when they missed work because of match commitments, the idea was voted down by the RFU, and widespread suspensions of northern clubs and players began. Two days later, on 29 August 1895, representatives of clubs met in the George Hotel, Huddersfield to form the Northern Rugby Football Union. Twenty clubs agreed to resign from the Rugby Union, but Dewsbury felt unable to comply with the decision. The Cheshire club, Stockport, had telegraphed the meeting requesting admission to the new organisation and was accepted with a second Cheshire club, Runcorn. The rugby union authorities took action, issuing sanctions against clubs, players. This extended even to amateurs who played with or against Northern Union sides, consequently, northern clubs that existed purely for social and recreational rugby began to affiliate to the Northern Union, whilst retaining amateur status. By 1904 the new body had more affiliated to it than the RFU

26.
Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg

27.
Ancient Greece
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Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC

28.
Attica
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Attica is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea, the modern administrative region of Attica is more extensive than the historical region and includes the Saronic Islands, Cythera, and the municipality of Troizinia on the Peloponnesian mainland. The history of Attica is tightly linked with that of Athens, Attica is a triangular peninsula jutting into the Aegean Sea. It is naturally divided to the north from Boeotia by the 10 mi long Cithaeron mountain range, to the west, it is bordered by the sea and the canal of Corinth. The Saronic Gulf lies to the south, and the island of Euboea lies off the north, mountains separate the peninsula into the plains of Pedias, Mesogaia, and Thriasion. The mountains of Attica are the Hymettus, the portion of the Geraneia, the Parnitha, the Aigaleo. Four mountains—Aigaleo, Parnitha, Penteli and Hymettus —delineate the hilly plain on which the Athens-Piraeus metroplex now spreads, Athens water reservoir, Lake Marathon, is an artificial lake created by damming in 1920. Pine and fir forests cover the area around Parnitha, Hymettus, Penteli, Myrrhinous and Laurium are forested with pine trees, whereas the rest are covered by shrubbery. The Kifisos is the longest river of Attica, according to Plato, Atticas ancient boundaries were fixed by the Isthmus, and, toward the continent, they extended as far as the heights of Cithaeron and Parnes. The boundary line came down toward the sea, bounded by the district of Oropus on the right, during antiquity, the Athenians boasted about being autochthonic, which is to say that they were the original inhabitants of the area and had not moved to Attica from another place. The traditions current in the classical period recounted that, during the Greek Dark Ages, Attica had become the refuge of the Ionians, who belonged to a tribe from the northern Peloponnese. Supposedly, the Ionians had been forced out of their homeland by the Achaeans, supposedly, the Ionians integrated with the ancient Atticans, who, afterward, considered themselves part of the Ionian tribe and spoke the Ionian dialect. Many Ionians later left Attica to colonize the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, during the Mycenaean period, the Atticans lived in autonomous agricultural societies. The main places where prehistoric remains were found are Marathon, Rafina, Nea Makri, Brauron, Thorikos, Agios Kosmas, Eleusis, Menidi, Markopoulo, Spata, Aphidnae, all of these settlements flourished during the Mycenaean period. According to tradition, Attica comprised twelve small communities during the reign of Cecrops, strabo assigns these the names of Cecropia, Tetrapolis, Epacria, Decelea, Eleusis, Aphidna, Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus, Sphettus, Cephisia, and possibly Phaleron. These were said to have been incorporated in an Athenian state during the reign of Theseus. Modern historians consider it likely that the communities were progressively incorporated into an Athenian state during the 8th. Until the 6th century BC, aristocratic families lived independent lives in the suburbs, only after Peisistratoss tyranny and the reforms implemented by Cleisthenes did the local communities lose their independence and succumb to the central government in Athens

29.
Lekythos
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A lekythos is a type of Ancient Greek vessel used for storing oil, especially olive oil. It has a body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel, and is thus a narrow type of jug, with no pouring lip. However, there are a number of varieties, and the word seems to have used even more widely in ancient times than by modern archeologists. They are normally in pottery, but there are carved stone examples. Lekythoi were especially associated with rites, and with the white ground technique of vase painting. Because of their handle they were only decorated with one image, on the other side from the handle, they are often photographed with the handle hidden. The lekythos was used for anointing dead bodies of unmarried women, the images on lekythoi were often depictions of daily activities or rituals. Because they are so used in funerary situations, they may also depict funerary rites. These drawings are usually outline drawings that are quite expressionless and somber in appearance, the decoration of these ceramic vessels consists of a dull red and black paint. These colors may have derived from the Bronze Age, but were not used until 530 BC in Athens. Many artists of these attempted to add more color to the figures, but later abandoned the idea. These vessels were very popular during the 5th century BC, however there are many that have been dating all the way back to 700 BC. They contained an oil which was offered either to the dead person or to the gods of the underworld. Some lekythoi were fitted with a small, inner chamber so that they appear full. The Lekythos was used to smear perfumed oil on a womans skin before getting married and were placed in tombs to allow the woman to prepare for a wedding in the afterlife. There are also plastic lekythoi, with bodies formed in the shape of a head, animal, or other form

30.
Scrum (rugby)
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A scrum is a method of restarting play in rugby that involves players packing closely together with their heads down and attempting to gain possession of the ball. Depending on whether it is in rugby union or rugby league, scrums occur more often, and are now of greater importance, in union than in league. Starting play from the line of scrimmage in gridiron football is derived from the scrum, in both sports, a scrum is formed by the players who are designated forwards binding together in three rows. The scrum then engages with the team so that the players heads are interlocked with those of the other sides front row. In rugby union the initiation of the process is coordinated by the referee who calls crouch, bind. The scrum-half from the team that did not infringe then throws the ball into the tunnel created in the space between the two sets of front rowers legs, both teams may then try to compete for the ball by trying to hook the ball backwards with their feet. In practice, however, the team with the put-in usually keeps possession, a rugby union scrum consists of two teams eight forwards, with each team binding in three rows. The front row is composed of the two props and the hooker, the two second row forwards, commonly referred to as the locks bind together and directly behind the front row with each putting their heads between the props and the hooker. Lastly the back row is made up of the two flankers and the number eight, the flankers bind on each side of the scrum — next to a lock and behind a prop. The two forward packs form a scrum by approaching to within a length of each other. The referee gives the command crouch and the front rows then crouch. Then the referee calls touch and props touch the opposites outside shoulder, the referee then issues the set command which indicates that the two packs may come together. When this happens both front rows thrust forward with the tighthead props heads going between the hooker and loosehead prop. The props then bind by gripping the back or side of the opposing props jersey, the scrum-half from the team that has possession then throws the ball in the gap formed between the two front rows. The two hookers compete for possession by trying to hook the ball backwards with their feet. The side that wins possession transfers the ball to the back of the scrum — which is done with their feet. Once at the back it is picked up either by the number 8, starting with the 2012/2013 rugby season the International Rugby Board has issued trial law amendments, one of which affects the call sequence. The referee will continue to start with crouch and touch, but will now issue the command set, pause has been removed in order to speed up the scrum and to minimize resets due to collapsed scrums

31.
Medieval football
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Medieval football is a modern term sometimes used for a wide variety of localised football games which were invented and played in Europe during the Middle Ages. Alternative names include folk football, mob football and Shrovetide football and these games may be regarded as the ancestors of modern codes of football, and by comparison with later forms of football, the medieval matches were chaotic and had few rules. The Middle Ages saw a rise in popularity of games played annually at Shrovetide throughout Europe, the games played in England at this time may have arrived with the Roman occupation but there is little evidence to indicate this. Certainly the Romans played ball games, in particular Harpastum, there is also one reference to ball games being played in southern Britain prior to the Norman Conquest. In the ninth century Nenniuss Historia Britonum tells that a group of boys were playing at ball, the origin of this account is either Southern England or Wales. References to a game played in northern France known as La Soule or Choule, in which the ball was propelled by hands, feet. By some accounts, in such events any means could be used to move the ball towards the goal. Sometimes instead of markers, the teams would attempt to kick the bladder into the balcony of the opponents church, a legend that these games in England evolved from a more ancient and bloody ritual of kicking the Danes head is unlikely to be true. These antiquated games went into decline in the 19th century when the Highway Act 1835 was passed banning the playing of football on public highways. Few images of medieval football survive, one engraving from the early fourteenth century at Gloucester Cathedral, England, clearly shows two young men running vigorously towards each other with a ball in mid-air between them. There is a hint that the players may be using their hands to strike the ball, a second medieval image in the British Museum, London clearly shows a group of men with a large ball on the ground. The ball clearly has a seam where leather has been sewn together and it is unclear exactly what is happening in this set of three images, although the last image appears to show a man with a broken arm. It is likely that this highlights the dangers of some medieval football games. Most of the early references to the game speak simply of ball play or playing at ball. This reinforces the idea that the games played at the time did not necessarily involve a ball being kicked, the earliest account of ball games being played in Europe comes from the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, attributed to Nennius. The text, composed in what is now northern Wales, mentions a group of playing at ball. The earliest reference from France which provides evidence of the playing of ball games comes in 1147 and this refers to the handing over of seven balloons of greatest dimension. An early description of games that are likely to be football in England was given by William FitzStephen

32.
Lower Normandy
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Lower Normandy is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, Lower and Upper Normandy merged becoming one region called Normandy and it covers 10,857 km2,3.2 percent of the surface area of France. The traditional districts of Lower Normandy include the Cotentin Peninsula and La Hague, the Campagne de Caen, the Norman Bocage, the Bessin, regions relating to Lower Normandy, Gallia Lugdunensis, Neustria, and Normandy. The traditional province of Normandy, with a history reaching back to the 10th century, was divided in 1956 into two regions, Lower Normandy and Upper Normandy. During the Roman era, the region was divided into several different city-states and that of Vieux was excavated in the 17th century, revealing numerous structures and vestiges bearing testimony to the prosperity of the Caen region. The region was conquered by the Franks in the 5th century, in the 9th century, the Norman conquests devastated the region. Much of the territory of Lower Normandy was added to the Duchy of Normandy in the 10th century, in 1066, Duke William Il of Normandy conquered England. After his death, Normandy went to his eldest son and England went to his second son, the victory of Tinchebray in 1106 gave Normandy to the kings of England again. Nearly one hundred years later, in 1204, King Philip II Augustus of France conquered the region, then, during the Hundred Years War, it was regained by the Plantagenets. However, the French recovered the mainland part of the region between 1436 and 1450, by 1453, the French monarchy controlled much of modern France apart from Calais, which remained in English hands. During the Second World War, the main thrust of Operation Overlord was focused on Lower Normandy, the beaches of Calvados were the site of the D-Day landings in June 1944. Lower Normandy suffered badly during the War, with many of its towns, the regions economy is heavily agricultural, with livestock and dairy farming, textiles and fruit production among its major industries. The region is the leader in France in the sectors of butter, fromage frais, soft cheeses, cider apples, cider, leeks, turnips, the region also breeds more horses than any other in France. The western part of the region is used mainly for farming, iron ore is mined near Caen. Tourism is also a major industry, the region has direct ferry links to England. In addition to French, Normandy has its own regional language and it is still in use today in Lower Normandy, with the dialects of the Cotentin more in evidence than others. Lower Normandy has also been the home of many well-known French authors, including Guy de Maupassant, Marcel Proust, notable Norman language authors connected especially with Lower Normandy include Alfred Rossel, Louis Beuve, and Côtis-Capel. In terms of music, composer Erik Satie also hailed from this region, in the visual arts, Jean-François Millet was a native of La Hague

33.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

34.
Ancient Rome
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In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid

35.
Harpastum
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Harpastum, also known as harpustum, was a form of ball game played in the Roman Empire. The Romans also referred to it as the ball game. The ball used was small and hard, probably about the size, the word harpastum is the latinisation of the Greek ἁρπαστόν, the neuter of ἁρπαστός, carried away, from the verb ἁρπάζω, to seize, to snatch. This game was apparently a version of a Greek game called phaininda. It involved considerable speed, agility and physical exertion, little is known about the exact rules of the game, but sources indicate the game was a violent one with players often ending up on the ground. In Greece, a spectator once had his leg broken when he got caught in the middle of play, athenaeus writes, Harpastum, which used to be called phaininda, is the game I like most of all. Great are the exertion and fatigue attendant upon contests of ball-playing, hence Antiphanes, Damn it, what a pain in the neck Ive got. He describes the game thus, He seized the ball and passed it to a team-mate while dodging another and he pushed it out of the way of another. Another fellow player he raised to his feet, all the while the crowd resounded with shouts of Out of bounds, Too far, Right beside him, Over his head, On the ground, Up in the air, Too short, Pass it back in the scrum. Galen, in On Exercise with the Small Ball, describes harpastum as, better than wrestling or running because it exercises every part of the body, takes up little time and it was profitable training in strategy, and could be played with varying degrees of strenuousness. To watch such play the populace remains stockstill, and the crowd suddenly abandons its own games. It is likely that this is the same as the game with the ball, which takes its name from harpazein. More than once he fell prone, and had to pick himself up from such collapses as best he could, the general impression from these descriptions is of a game quite similar to rugby. Additional descriptions suggest a line was drawn in the dirt, and this seems rather like an inverted form of football. If the opponents had the ball on their side of the line, the ancient accounts of the game are not precise enough to enable the reconstruction the rules in any detail. In the Croatian town of Sinj, a Roman tombstone found in the ruins of the military camp Tilurium, near the modern day Trilj, the ball that is shown on this monument has hexagonal and pentagonal patterns, similar to a modern-day football

36.
Episkyros
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Episkyros was an ancient Greek ball game. Highly teamwork oriented, the game was played two teams of usually 12 to 14 players each, with one ball and the rules of the game which allowed using hands. Although it was a game, it was violent, at least in Sparta. The teams would try to throw the ball over the heads of the other team, there was a white line called the skuros between the teams and another white line behind each team. Teams would change the ball often until one of the team was forced behind the line at their end, in Sparta a form of episkyros was played during an annual city festival that included five teams of 14 players. It was played primarily by men but women also practiced it, a depiction in low relief on the belly of the vase displayed at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Shows a Greek athlete balancing a ball on his thigh and this image is reproduced on the European Cup football trophy. Although it has argued that the σφαιρομαχία is in fact a boxing competition. It is likely that this is the same as the game with the small ball, which takes its name from harpazein and perhaps one would call the game with the soft ball by the same name

37.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin

38.
Clement of Alexandria
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Titus Flavius Clemens, known as Clement of Alexandria to distinguish him from the earlier Clement of Rome, was a Christian theologian who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. A convert to Christianity, he was a man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy. As his three works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular by Plato. His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. Clement is usually regarded as a Church Father and he is venerated as a saint in Coptic Christianity, Ethiopian Christianity and Anglicanism. He was previously revered in the Roman Catholic Church, but his name was removed from the Roman Martyrology in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V on the advice of Baronius, neither Clements birthdate or birthplace is known with any degree of certainty. It is conjectured that he was born in around 150, according to Epiphanius Scholasticus, he was born in Athens, but there is also a tradition of an Alexandrian birth. His parents were pagans, and Clement was a convert to Christianity, in the Protrepticus he displays an extensive knowledge of Greek mythology and mystery religions, which could only have arisen from the practice of his familys religion. Having rejected paganism as a man due to its perceived moral corruption, he travelled in Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine. Clements journeys were primarily a religious undertaking, in around 180, Clement reached Alexandria, where he met Pantaenus, who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Eusebius suggests that Pantaenus was the head of the school, Clement studied under Pantaenus, and was ordained to the priesthood by Pope Julian before 189. Otherwise, virtually nothing is known of Clements life in Alexandria and he may have been married, a conjecture supported by his writings. During the Severian persecutions of 202–203, Clement left Alexandria, in 211, Alexander of Jerusalem wrote a letter commending him to the Church of Antioch, which may imply that Clement was living in Cappadocia or Jerusalem at that time. The date and location of his death are unknown, three of Clements major works have survived in full, and they are collectively referred to as the trilogy, the Protrepticus – written c. The Stromata – written c.198 – c, the Protrepticus is, as its title suggests, an exhortation to the pagans of Greece to adopt Christianity, and within it Clement demonstrates his extensive knowledge of pagan mythology and theology. It is chiefly important due to Clements exposition of religion as an anthropological phenomenon, after a short philosophical discussion, it opens with a history of Greek religion in seven stages. Clement suggests that at first, men believed the Sun

39.
Cicero
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Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, politician, lawyer, orator, political theorist, consul, and constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy family of the Roman equestrian order. According to Michael Grant, the influence of Cicero upon the history of European literature, Cicero introduced the Romans to the chief schools of Greek philosophy and created a Latin philosophical vocabulary distinguishing himself as a translator and philosopher. Though he was an orator and successful lawyer, Cicero believed his political career was his most important achievement. During the chaotic latter half of the 1st century BC marked by civil wars, following Julius Caesars death, Cicero became an enemy of Mark Antony in the ensuing power struggle, attacking him in a series of speeches. His severed hands and head were then, as a revenge of Mark Antony. Petrarchs rediscovery of Ciceros letters is often credited for initiating the 14th-century Renaissance in public affairs, humanism, according to Polish historian Tadeusz Zieliński, the Renaissance was above all things a revival of Cicero, and only after him and through him of the rest of Classical antiquity. Cicero was born in 106 BC in Arpinum, a hill town 100 kilometers southeast of Rome and his father was a well-to-do member of the equestrian order and possessed good connections in Rome. However, being a semi-invalid, he could not enter public life, although little is known about Ciceros mother, Helvia, it was common for the wives of important Roman citizens to be responsible for the management of the household. Ciceros brother Quintus wrote in a letter that she was a thrifty housewife, Ciceros cognomen, or personal surname, comes from the Latin for chickpea, cicer. Plutarch explains that the name was given to one of Ciceros ancestors who had a cleft in the tip of his nose resembling a chickpea. However, it is likely that Ciceros ancestors prospered through the cultivation. Romans often chose down-to-earth personal surnames, the family names of Fabius, Lentulus, and Piso come from the Latin names of beans, lentils. Plutarch writes that Cicero was urged to change this name when he entered politics. During this period in Roman history, cultured meant being able to speak both Latin and Greek, Cicero used his knowledge of Greek to translate many of the theoretical concepts of Greek philosophy into Latin, thus translating Greek philosophical works for a larger audience. It was precisely his broad education that tied him to the traditional Roman elite, according to Plutarch, Cicero was an extremely talented student, whose learning attracted attention from all over Rome, affording him the opportunity to study Roman law under Quintus Mucius Scaevola. Ciceros fellow students were Gaius Marius Minor, Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the latter two became Ciceros friends for life, and Pomponius would become, in Ciceros own words, as a second brother, with both maintaining a lifelong correspondence. Cicero wanted to pursue a career in politics along the steps of the Cursus honorum

40.
Rugby Football Union
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The Rugby Football Union is the governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby in 1886. It promotes and runs the sport, organises international matches for the England national team and it is based at Twickenham Stadium, London. In September 2010 the equivalent womens rugby body, the Rugby Football Union for Women, was able to nominate a member to the RFU Council to represent women, the RFUW was integrated into the RFU in July 2012. On 26 January 1871 a meeting attended by representatives from 21 clubs was held in London at the Pall Mall Restaurant on Regent Street. C, kings College Hospital, St Pauls, Queen’s House, Lausanne, Addison, Mohicans, and Belsize Park. The one notable omission was the Wasps, as a result of this meeting the Rugby Football Union was founded. Algernon Rutter was elected as the first president of the RFU, three lawyers who were Rugby School alumni drew up the first laws of the game, which were approved in June 1871. The RFU took strong action against the involved in the formation of the NRFU, all of whom were deemed to have forfeited their amateur status. A similar interpretation was applied to all players who played either for or against such clubs and these players were barred indefinitely from any involvement in organised rugby union. The RFU long resisted competitions and leagues fearing that they would encourage foul play, the first club competition, then known as the R. F. U. Club Competition, took place in 1972, following a sponsorship agreement it became known as the John Player Cup in 1976. The RFU agreed to the formation of a pyramid in 1987. In 2005 the RFU began talks about a merger with the body for womens rugby union the RFUW. In September 2010 the RFUW was able to nominate a member to the RFU Council to represent women, the RFUW was integrated into the RFU in July 2012. Andrew also had the task of building bridges with the premiership clubs, on 6 January 2011 his role of Director of Elite Rugby was scrapped in an overhaul of the organisations structure. Official website Official RFU Clubs Website Army Rugby Union

41.
Rugby Football League
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The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the league competition run by the organisation. This has since been supplanted by Super League, the Championship, based at Red Hall in Leeds, it administers the England national rugby league team, the Challenge Cup, Super League and the Rugby League Championships. The social and junior game is administered in association with the British Amateur Rugby League Association, the Rugby Football League is a member of the Rugby League European Federation and as a senior Full Member has a combined veto power over the Council with France. The RFL is part of the Community Board, which also has representatives from BARLA, Combined Services, English Schools Rugby League, eventually the Northern was dropped from its name at the beginning of the 1980s. The turnover of the RFL was reported as £27m in 2011, two days later, on Thursday 29 August 1895, representatives of 21 clubs met in the George Hotel, Huddersfield to form the Northern Rugby Football Union. Twenty clubs agreed to resign from the Rugby Football Union, the Cheshire club, Stockport, had telegraphed the meeting requesting admission to the new organisation and was duly accepted with a second Cheshire club, Runcorn, admitted at the next meeting. The 22 clubs and their years of foundation were, In 1908 the Northern Unions brand of rugby was taken up in Australia, the Union hosted touring sides from both countries before assembling a Great Britain representative team for a 1910 tour of Australia and New Zealand. These nations, particularly Australia, would go on to excel in the sport, the British Amateur Rugby League Association was created in 1973 in Huddersfield by a group of enthusiasts concerned about the dramatic disappearance of many amateur leagues and clubs. Fewer than 150 amateur teams remained with a mere 30 youth rugby league teams, the breakaway from the RFL was acrimonious and was strongly contested, with a vote 29-1 against recognising BARLA. Thanks to Tom Mitchell, this changed to a vote of approval for BARLA within 12 months. Maurice Lindsay became the Chief Executive of the RFL in 1992, proposing the Super League, Lindsay returned to Wigan in 1999 for his second stint at the club after Sir Rodney Walker, then chairman of the RFL, sacked him after a campaign to unseat him failed. The RFL accumulated losses of £1.9 million at the end of 2001, shortly before a restructuring of the governing body. Within a year of joining the RFL, he oversaw reunification with BARLA after nearly 30 years of division, Lewis left in 2012 to become Chief Executive of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The RFL net value has been every year since 2004. The regional leagues may include winter competitions in addition, in 2012, the Rugby Football League were awarded the Stonewall Sport Award in recognition of their work in embracing inclusivity and tackling homophobia. They also became the first UK sporting organisation to make the top 100 employers in the Stonewall Index that measures attitudes towards lesbian, gay and bisexual staff. The RFL operates a system and is responsible for running the top three professional divisions as well as the National Conference League and various regional leagues below that

42.
Edinburgh University RFC
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It is one of the eight founder members of the Scottish Rugby Union. It remains a club with an all-student committee, and is open to students of the University of Edinburgh. Established in 1857, the Club now plays its home fixtures at the University of Edinburghs Peffermill playing grounds, in 1871 Club member Angus Buchanan scored the first ever International try in the inaugural International match whilst representing Scotland versus England at Raeburn Place. There were three current Club representatives in the Scottish brown jerseys on that day, the two being J. Forsyth and J. L. H MacFarlane. In 1901 after winning the Scottish unofficial championship, the Club provided an eight members of the Scotland XV to defeat Wales that February. These were Bedell-Sivright, A. B Flett, Alfred Fell, Alex Frew, W. H Welsh, F. M Fasson, A. B Timms, and A. W. This was as a member of the Western Province, where he had settled as a doctor after his Edinburgh graduation of 1902. A great Rugby rarity happened in 1910 when EURFC player C. G, Timms had the distinction of representing the Club throughout that year and the British & Irish Lions on tour to South Africa without ever winning an international cap before or after. Charlie Timms may have made up for his lack of caps by going on to be awarded four Military Crosses in World War I as a Medical Officer – another great. His brother A. B Timms was capped for Scotland from the Club in 1896, in this time names such as contemporary Scotland internationals John Frame, Ian Smith, and Harry Rea were to the fore. The last major international player from the Club was Jock Millican, since 1973 only Phil Lucas has been capped internationally while playing for Barbados in 2009. In this time EURFC also had regular fixtures with the University XVs of Durham, Newcastle, wednesday afternoons saw fixtures in the Scottish Universities championship which was won many times and very many players represented the Scottish Universities XV. A memorable victory in the SRUS Scottish HydroElectric Bowl competition was registered in 2009 with the final being played against Aberdeenshire RFC at Murrayfield, the Club remains the only Scottish University at this level. In total EURFC runs five teams, The 1st XV currently competes in British Universities Premier North B League, the 2nd XV currently competes in Scottish Universities Sport League 2A. The 3rd and 4th XVs currently compete in Scottish Universities Sport League 5A, in the past, EURFC has also fielded an EURL team in the BUCS competitions. Edinburgh University also has two teams, run as separate club EULRFC. The first XV were 2009 semi finalists of the British Universities Championships and they compete in the BUCS Northern Premier Division and Scottish Premier League. The 2nd XV team currently compete in the Scottish Universities Championship, Edinburgh University RFC has a notable history of touring, a major tour to Japan was undertaken in 2008 where one of the games was televised

43.
Edinburgh Academical Football Club
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The Edinburgh Academical Football Club, also known as Edinburgh Accies or Edinburgh Acads, is a rugby union football club in Edinburgh, Scotland. At present it plays in the Scottish BT National 1 and plays their games at Raeburn Place. They are coached by Derek ORiordan and Iain Berthinussen, the club regularly fields four teams with the addition of the BATS initiative which they run along with Edinburgh BATs Rugby, Broughton RFC and Trinity Accies RFC. The club was formed in 1857 and is the oldest rugby club in Scotland and they are one of the founding members of the Scottish Rugby Union. In the 1873–74 season, they played ten matches, and won all of them, the Academicals are also responsible for the oldest organised rugby match, between The Edinburgh Academy and Merchiston Castle School which was first played in 1859. The Accies home ground, Raeburn Place is also significant as the location of the first ever rugby international, seven players of the original Scotland side were Academicals, including the captain, FJ Moncrieff. In season 2007–08, the Clubs 1st XV finished second in the Scottish Hydro Electric Premiership Division 2 and that same season they experienced a successful Scottish Cup run, reaching the final with victories over Premiership 1 teams Currie, Hawick and Boroughmuir. The team lost the final 24–13 to the Glasgow Hawks, in season 2010–11 the club were Premier 2 League champions and returned to the top level of Scottish club rugby, the Premier 1 League, for the 2011–12 season. They remained in the Scottish Premiership after the restructure of the Scottish league system, the following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented both the Scotland national rugby union team and the Scotland national cricket team. The following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented Scotland at full international level, the following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented the British and Irish Lions. The following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented Scotland at full level in rugby union. The following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented their nations at international level. Bath, Richard The Complete Book of Rugby Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby Bath, Edinburgh Academicals Football Club Official Site The Accies - The Cradle of Scottish Rugby - Club history written by David Barnes

44.
Montevideo Cricket Club
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The Montevideo Cricket Club is an Uruguayan sports club based in Montevideo, established in 1861 by English immigrants. Its predecessor had been the now defunct Victoria Cricket Club, founded in 1842, Montevideo has been ranked 8th as the oldest rugby union club by the World Rugby Museum of Twickenham. Apart from football and rugby, the other sports practised at the club are field hockey, speed badminton. The MVCC proper was founded on 18 July 1861, the club is recognised as the oldest sports club of Uruguay, having been the pioneer in the practise of cricket, field hockey, association football, rugby union and tennis. In 1868, the MVCC played its first international game against Argentine Buenos Aires Cricket Club. It is the oldest international match registered in South America and was played on MVCCs ground in La Blanqueda, the MVCC played its first association football match in 1878, between MVCC and a visiting ship. This was the first organised match in Uruguay, in 1881, the MVCC played its first club match against the Montevideo Rowing Club. MVCC also took part of the first international match involving an Uruguayan football squad, in 1983, the MVCC first played the Club Universitario de Buenos Aires, and has played them annually ever since. In 1974 and 1975, the MVCC swimming teams won the championships in swimming and diving. The ladies field hockey won the local championships in 1987,1989,1993 and 1997. The club also competes in athletics, cycling and tennis and its original ground was known as La Blanqueada or the English ground, but in 1889, it moved from its original location to make way for a military hospital to a new site nearby. This was also known as La Blanqueada or the New Ground to distinguish it from the original site, the new site was purchased by debentures that members bought. The MVCC moved a third time in 1945 to near the town of Sayago and it moved for a fourth time to Carrasco, in 1955, where fields were shared by The British Schools of Montevideo. In 1996, the MVCC moved yet again to Solymar on the outskirts of Montevideo, English cricket clubs were the incubators of rugby in South America, although rugby has survived much better in these countries than cricket has. It has been claimed that MVCC played rugby football as early as 1865, one observer, apparently disdainful of the Britons mixing with the natives, found it. at the same time sublime and ridiculous. Young sons of distinguished families practising the games of the Anglo-Saxon in their youth and young Englishmen of blond Albion, carlos E. Cat, also known as Charlie, was a member of the MVCC, and was also president of the club in 1946. In 1950, the Campeonato Uruguayo de Rugby was inaugurated and continues today, the first game was between the MVCC, and Carrasco Polo Club. MVCC had some success in the 1950s, winning the national title 3 times, in recent years however, the club has had to live in the shadows of Montevideos two powerhouses, Carrasco Polo Club and Old Christians Club

45.
The Football Association
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The Football Association, also known simply as the FA, is the governing body of association football in England, and the Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the amateur, the FA sanctions all competitive football matches within its remit at national level, and indirectly at local level through the County Football Associations. It runs numerous competitions, the most famous of which is the FA Cup, the FA is a member of both UEFA and FIFA and holds a permanent seat on the International Football Association Board which is responsible for the laws of the game. As the first football association, it not use the national name English in its title. The FA is based at Wembley Stadium, London, the FA is a member of the British Olympic Association, meaning that the FA has control over the mens and womens Great Britain Olympic football team. All of Englands professional football teams are members of the Football Association, although it does not run the day-to-day operations of the Premier League, it has veto power over the appointment of the League Chairman and Chief Executive and over any changes to league rules. The English Football League, made up of the three professional divisions below the Premier League, is self-governing, subject to the FAs sanctions. Another set of rules, the Sheffield Rules, was used by a number of clubs in the North of England from the 1850s, eleven London football clubs and schools representatives met on 26 October 1863 to agree on common rules. The founding clubs present at the first meeting were Barnes, Civil Service, Crusaders, Forest of Leytonstone, many of these clubs are now defunct or play rugby union. Civil Service FC, who now plays in the Southern Amateur League, is the one of the original eleven football clubs still in existence. There are only three institutions which have been members of the F. A. since 1863, those being Civil Service, Forest School and Kings College. Central to the creation of the Football Association and modern football was Ebenezer Cobb Morley and he was a founding member of the Football Association in 1863. In 1862, as captain of Barnes, he wrote to Bells Life newspaper proposing a governing body for the sport led to the first meeting at The Freemasons Tavern that created the FA. He was the FAs first secretary and its president and drafted the Laws of the Game generally called the London Rules at his home in Barnes. As a player, he played in the first ever match in 1863, the first version of the rules for the modern game was drawn up over a series of six meetings held in The Freemasons Tavern from October till December. Of the clubs at the first meeting, Crusaders, Surbiton and Charterhouse did not attend the subsequent meetings, replaced instead by the Royal Navy School, Wimbledon School, at the final meeting, F. M. Other English rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the FA, the term soccer dates back to this split to refer to football played under the association rules. The Richmond side were obviously unimpressed by the new rules in practice because they helped form the Rugby Football Union in 1871

46.
William Webb Ellis
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Reverend William Webb Ellis was an English Anglican clergyman and the alleged inventor of rugby football whilst a pupil at Rugby School. According to legend, Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it during a football match in 1823. Although the story has become entrenched in the sports folklore, it is not supported by substantive evidence. The William Webb Ellis Cup is presented to the winners of the Rugby World Cup and his paternal grandfather was from Pontyclun in South Wales, a descendant of the Ellis family of Kiddal Hall, just off the A64 near Potterton, West Riding of Yorkshire. He attended the school from 1816 to 1825 and was recorded as being a scholar and cricketer. The incident in which Webb Ellis supposedly caught the ball in his arms during a football match, after leaving Rugby in 1826, he went to Brasenose College, Oxford, aged 20. He played cricket for his college, and for Oxford University against Cambridge University in a match in 1827. He graduated with a BA in 1829 and received his MA in 1831 and he entered the Church and became chaplain of St Georges Chapel, Albemarle Street, London, and then rector of St. Clement Danes in the Strand. He became well known as a low church evangelical clergyman, in 1855, he became rector of Magdalen Laver in Essex. A picture of him appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1854 and he never married and died in the south of France in 1872, leaving an estate of £9,000, mostly to various charities. His grave in le cimetière du vieux château at Menton in Alpes Maritimes was rediscovered by Ross McWhirter in 1958 and has since been renovated by the French Rugby Federation. The sole source of the story of Webb Ellis picking up the ball originates with one Matthew Bloxam, a local antiquarian and former pupil of Rugby. On 22 December 1880, in another letter to the Meteor, Bloxam elaborates on the story, A boy of the name Ellis – William Webb Ellis – a town boy, whilst playing Bigside at football in that half-year, caught the ball in his arms. Bloxams first account differed from his second one four years later, in his first letter, in 1876, Bloxham claimed that Webb Ellis committed the act in 1824, a time by which Webb Ellis had left Rugby. In his second letter, in 1880, Bloxham put the year as 1823, the sub-committee conducting the investigation was unable to procure any first hand evidence of the occurrence. Among those giving evidence, Thomas Harris and his brother John, Thomas Harris, who requested that he not quote as an authority, testified that Webb Ellis had been known as someone to take an unfair advantage at football. John Harris, who would have been aged 10 years at the time of the alleged incident, additionally, he stated that he had not heard the story of Webb Elliss creation of the game. Thomas Hughes was asked to comment on the game as played when he attended the school, football, the first hundred years, the untold story

The Football Association, also known simply as the FA, is the governing body of association football in England, and …

Photo of an early handwritten draft of the 'Laws of the game' for association Football drafted for and behalf of The Football Association by Ebenezer Cobb Morley in 1863 on display at the National Football Museum, Manchester.

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the …

Plaque marking the foundation location of the RFU

Re-excommunication: cartoon by J. M. Staniforth. The RFU is represented as a religious cabal, expelling Arthur "Monkey" Gould from their "church" over the "Gould Affair". Gould, in his Newport jersey, appears unconcerned.